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LEMXIAX   ATHENA 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

AND    IN   ART 

BASED  ORIGINALLY  ON  BULFINCH'S  "AGE  OF  FABLE"  (1855) 


ACCOMPANIED  BY  AN  INTERPRETATIVE  AND 
ILLUSTRATIVE  COMMENTARY 


BY 


CHARLES   MILLS    GAYLEY,  Litt.D.,  LL.D, 

PROFESSOR  OF  THE   ENGLISH    LANGUAGE  AND   LITERATURE 
IN  THE    UNIVERSITY  OF   CALIFORNIA 


NEW  EDITION 
REVISED  AND  ENLARGED 


GINN  AND  COMPANY 

BOSl'ON     •     SEW    VOUK      ■     rillCAGO      •     LONDON 
ATLANTA     •     DALLAS     •     COLUiMBUS     •     SAN    KKANCISCO 


COPYRIGHT,  1893,  1911,  BY  CHARLES  MILLS  GAYLEY 

ENTERBD   AT   STATIONERS*  HALL 
ALL   RIGHTS    RESERVED 
•  821. II 


Sde   Sttbenetunr   !^tefSg 

GINM  AND  COMPANY  •  VRO- 
PKlliTORS  •  UOSTON  •  U.S.A. 


TO   THE   MUSES 

Whether  on  Ida's  shady  brow, 

Or  in  the  chambers  of  the  East, 
The  chambers  of  the  sun,  that  now 

From  ancient  melody  have  ceas'd ; 

Whether  in  Heav'n  ye  wander  fair, 

Or  the  green  corners  of  the  earth, 
Or  the  blue  regions  of  the  air, 

Where  the  melodious  winds  have  birth  ^ 

Whether  on  crystal  rocks  ye  rove, 

Beneath  the  bosom  of  the  sea. 
Wandering  in  many  a  coral  grove, 

Fair  Nine,  forsaking  Poetry; 

How  have  you  left  the  ancient  love 

That  bards  of  old  enjoyed  in  you ! 
The  languid  strings  do  scarcely  move. 

The  sound  is  forc'd,  the  notes  are  few ! 

William  Blake 


O  antique  fables !  beautiful  and  bright 

And  joyous  with  the  joyous  youth  of  yore  5 

O  antique  fables !  for  a  little  light 

Of  that  which  shineth  in  you  evermore, 

To  cleanse  the  dimness  from  our  weary  eyes, 

And  bathe  our  old  world  with  a  new  surprise 
Of  golden  dawn  entrancing  sea  and  shore. 

James  Thomson 


PREFACE 

In  this  new  edition  of  "The  Classic  Myths  in  EngHsh  Litera- 
ture" the  former  order  of  materials  has  been  altered  in  accordance 
with  the  advice  of  the  teachers  who  have  had  longest  experience 
with  the  use  of  the  book ;  the  old  material  has  been  thoroughly 
revised  ;  and  much  new  material  has  been  added.  Since  most 
people  prefer  to  begin  a  story  at  its  beginning,  and  not  with  the 
career  of  its  author  and  his  genealogy,  I  have  reserved  the  history 
of  the  myths  for  the  conclusion  of  the  text.  Some  of  the  myths 
have  been  restated  in  more  careful  form.  Some  short  narratives, 
before  omitted,  have  been  included.  The  sketches  of  the  Iliad 
and  the  Odyssey  have  been  considerably  expanded  ;  and  an  out- 
line —  which,  I  hope,  will  be  deemed  adequate  —  of  Wagner's 
version  of  the  Ring  of  the  Nibelung  has  been  appended  to  the 
account  of  Norse  and  German  mythology.  That  version  is,  of 
.course,  not  English  literature  ;  but  it  has  come  to  be  received  as 
the  classic  modern  version  of  the  story  ;  and  the  story  is  needed, 
at  some  time  or  other,  by  every  lover  of  music.  Fresh  examples 
of  the  employment  of  myth  in  English  verse  have,  where  practi- 
cable, been  incorporated  in  the  text ;  and  some  new  references 
will  be  found  in  the  Commentary. 

I  have  thoroughly  revised  the  list  of  illustrative  cuts,  have  in- 
terpreted the  more  difficult  of  the  ancient  figures,  and  indicated 
the  sources.  The  pictures  themselves  are  a  decided  improvement 
upon  those  in  the  former  edition.  In  the  determination  of  sources 
for  reproduction,  I  have  had  the  valuable  assistance  of  Dr.  E.  von 
Mach,  the  author  of  more  than  one  well-known  work  on  ancient 
art ;  and  to  him  I  am  indebted,  in  addition,  for  the  section  on  The 
Classic  Myths  in  Art,  which  is  included  in  my  Introduction.  With 
this  new  equipment  the  book  should  prove  more  useful  to  those 
who  here  make  their  first  acquaintance  with  art,  especially  the  art 


vi  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

of  the  ancients,  as  well  as  to  those  who  have  been  in  the  habit 
of  using  it  as  a  guide  to  paintings  and  sculptures  of  mythological 
subjects  in  foreign  galleries. 

Much  of  our  best  English  poetry  lies  beyond  the  imaginative 
reach  of  many  readers  because  of  their  unfamiliarity  with  the 
commonplaces  of  literary  allusion,  reference,  and  tradition.  Of 
such  commonplaces  few  are  more  frequently  recurrent  than  those 
furnished  by  the  literature  of  myth. 

In  view  of  this  consideration,  the  Academic  Council  of  the 
University  of  California,  some  twenty  years  ago,  introduced  into  its 
requirements  for  entrance  in  English  the  subject  of  Classical  My- 
thology in  its  relation  to  English  Literature,  and  recommended,  as 
a  textbook  for  preparation,  Bulfinch's  "  Age  of  Fable."  The  ex- 
perience of  English  and  classical  teachers  in  the  schools  of  the  state 
attested  the  wisdom  of  the  requirement ;  but  the  demand  for  some 
textbook  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  classroom  made  necessary 
the  preparation  of  this  volume.  For  while  "  The  Age  of  Fable  " 
offered  a  tempting  collection  of  Greek,  Norse,  and  Oriental  narra- 
tives, it  was  designed  neither  as  a  schoolbook  nor  as  a  systematized 
presentation  and  interpretation  of  the  myths  that  have  most  influ- 
enced English  literature. 

At  the  request  of  my  publishers  I  undertook  at  that  time  such  a 
revision  and  rearrangement  of  the  materials  of  "  The  Age  of  Fable  " 
as  might  adapt  it  to  the  purposes  of  teacher  and  pupil,  and  to  the 
taste  of  readers  somewhat  more  advanced  in  years  than  those  ad- 
dressed by  the  original  work  or  by  the  edition  which  bore  the  name 
of  the  Reverend  Edward  Everett  Hale.  But  after  a  year's  work  I 
found  that  half  my  material  for  copy  was  new,  and  that  the 
remainder  differed  in  many  important  respects  from  the  book 
upon  which  it  was  based.  Consequently,  while  the  obligation  to 
"  The  Age  of  Fable  "  was  acknowledged  in  full,  a  different  title 
was  selected  for  the  resulting  volume.  For  neither  my  publishers  nor 
I  desired  that  the  scholarship  or  the  taste  of  Mr.  Bulfinch  should 
be  held  accountable  for  liberties  that  were  taken  with  his  work. 


PREFACE  vii 

In  "  The  Classic  Myths  in  EngHsh  Literature  and  in  Art,"  Chap- 
ters XXIII-XXVII,  containing  sketches  of  the  Fall  of  Troy,  the 
Odyssey,  the  JEntid,  and  of  certain  Norse  lays,  are  a  revision  of 
corresponding  chapters  in  "  The  Age  of  Fable."  Chapters  VII- 
XX,  and  XXII,  comprising  Myths  of  the  Greater  Divinities  of 
Heaven,  Earth,  the  Underworld,  and  the  Waters,  Myths  of  the 
Lesser  Divinities  of  the  same  regions.  Myths  of  the  Older  Heroes 
and  Myths  of  the  Younger  Heroes,  and  the  outline  of  the  Trojan 
War,  represent  a  total  rearrangement  and  recomposition  of  the 
original  material,  section  by  section,  and  frequently  paragraph  by 
paragraph,  —  such  portions  of  "  The  Age  of  Fable  "  as  have  been 
retained  being  abridged  or  rewritten,  and,  in  places  too  frequent  to 
enumerate,  supplemented  by  new  and  necessary  sentences,  para- 
graphs, and  sections.  The  Introduction,  the  first  six  chapters  (on 
the  Greek  Myths  of  the  Creation,  and  the  attributes  of  Greek  and 
Roman  divinities),  Chapters  XXI  and  XXVIII-XXXII  (on  the 
Houses  concerned  in  the  Trojan  War,  the  Saga  of  the  Volsungs, 
the  Lay  of  the  Nibelungs,  Wagner's  Ring  of  the  Nibelung,  and  on 
the  origin,  elements, 'distribution,  and  preservation  of  myth),  the 
choice  of  poetic  and  artistic  illustration,  the  footnotes  referring  to 
sources,  and  the  Commentary  are  wholly,  or  essentially,  my  own. 
In  fact,  there  is  little  but  the  scaffolding  of  "  The  Age  of  Fable  " 
now  remaining  in  the  book. 

Although  in  the  Index  of  Mythological  Subjects  and  their  Sources 
the  more  common  myths  of  some  other  nations  are  briefly  stated, 
no  myths  save  those  known  to  the  Greeks,  Romans,  Norsemen,  or 
Germans  have  been  included  in  the  body  of  the  text.  The  scope  of 
selection  has  been  thus  confined  for  three  reasons :  first,  the  regard 
for  necessary  limits  ;  second,  the  desirability  of  emphasizing  only 
such  myths  as  have  actually  acclimated  themselves  in  English- 
speaking  lands  and  have  influenced  the  spirit,  form,  and  habit  of 
English  imaginative  thought ;  third,  the  necessity  of  excluding  all 
but  the  unquestionably  classic.  The  term  classic,  however,  is,  of 
course,  not  restricted  to  the  products  of  Greece  and  Rome  ;  nor 


viii  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

is  it  employed  as  synonymous  with  Classical  or  as  antithetical  to 
Romantic.  From  the  extreme  Classical  to  the  extreme  Romantic 
is  a  far  cry  ;  but  as  human  life  knows  no  divorce  of  necessity  from 
freedom,  so  genuine  art  knows  neither  an  unrelieved  Classical  nor 
an  unrestrained  Romantic.  Classical  and  Romantic  are  relative 
terms.  The  Classical  and  the  Romantic  of  one  generation  may 
merit  equally  to  be  the  classics  of  the  next.  Therefore  certain 
Hellenic  myths  of  romantic  spirit  or  construction  have  been  in- 
cluded in  this  work,  and  certain  Norse  and  German  myths  have 
not  been  excluded.  Whatever  is  admitted,  is  admitted  as  first-class  : 
first-class,  because  simple,  spontaneous,  and  beautiful ;  because  ful- 
filling the  requirements  of  perennial  freshness,  of  aesthetic  potency, 
and  of  ideal  worth. 

In  the  matter  of  illustrative  English  and  American  poems  the 
principle  of  selection  has  been  that  the  verses  shall  translate  a 
myth  from  the  classic  original,  or  exemplify  the  poetic  idealization 
and  embellishment  of  the  subject,  or  suggest  the  spirit  and  mien 
of  ancient  art.  But  in  each  case  regard  has  been  had  to  the  aesthetic 
value  of  the  poem  or  the  citation.  In  the  search  for  suitable  ex- 
amples I  have  derived  valuable  assistance  from  Mr.  E.  C.  Guild's 
"  Bibliography  of  Greek  Mythology  in  English  Poetry  of  the  Nine- 
teenth Century  "  (Bowdoin  College,  Library  Bulletin  No.  I).  The 
student  is  also  referred  to  A.  E.  Sawtelle's  "  Sources  of  Spenser's 
Mythology,"  C.  G.  Osgood's  "Classical  Mythology  of  Milton,"  and 
R.  K.  Root's  "  Classical  Mythology  in  Shakespeare"  (Holt,  1896, 
1900,  and  1903,  respectively). 

In  the  Commentary  four  things  have  been  attempted  :  first,  an 
explanation,  under  each  section,  of  ordinary  textual  difficulties ; 
second,  an  unpretentious  exposition  of  the  myth  or  a  brief  state- 
ment of  the  more  evident  interpretations  advanced  by  philologists 
or  ethnologists  ;  third,  an  indication  of  certain  additional  poems 
or  verses  that  illustrate  the  myth  ;  fourth,  special  mention  of  such 
masterpieces  of  ancient  and  modem  sculpture  and  painting  as  may 
serve  to  introduce  the  student  or  the  general  reader  to  a  field  of 


•      PREFACE  IX 

aesthetic  profit  neglected  by  the  great  mass  of  our  people.  For  the 
poetic  conception  of  most  of  the  myths  contained  in  Chapters 
I-XXIV,  we  are  indebted  to  the  Greek  imagination  ;  but  since 
this  book  is  intended  for  students  of  English  poetry,  and  since  in 
English  poetry  Latin  names  of  mythological  characters  are  much 
more  frequently  employed  than  Greek,  the  Latin  designations  or 
Latinized  forms  of  Greek  names  have  been,  so  far  as  possible,  re- 
tained ;  and  such  variations  as  Jupiter,  Jove —  Proserpina,  Proser- 
pine, freely  used.  In  the  chapters,  however,  on  the  attributes  of 
the  Greek  gods,  names  exclusively  Greek  have  been  placed  in 
parentheses  after  the  usual  Roman  equivalents,  Latin  appellations, 
or  designations  common  to  both  Greek  and  Roman  usage.  In  the 
transliteration  of  Greek  names  I  have  followed,  also,  the  prevalent 
practice  of  our  poets,  which  is,  generally  speaking,  the  practice  of  the 
Romans.  The  diphthong  et,  for  instance,  is  transliterated  according 
to  the  accepted  English  pronunciation,  which -in  individual  words 
perpetuates  the  preference  of  the  Latins  for  the  e  sound  or  the 
i  sound  respectively.  So  'ArpeiSjjq  becomes  Atrldes  ;  I(f>i/Jbe8eca, 
Iphimedla.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  Kvdepeia  becomes  Cytherea ; 
riT^yeto'?,  Peneus ;  and  MrjSeLa,  Medea;  while  owing  to  purely  popu- 
lar English  custom,  such  a  name  as  <I>et8ia9  has  become,  not  Pheidias 
nor  even  Phidias,  but  —  Phidias.  A  few  names  of  islands,  towns, 
persons,  etc.,  that  even  in  Latin  retain  their  Greek  forms,  —  such 
as  Delos,  Naxos,  Argos,  Aglauros,  Pandrosos,  —  have  been  trans- 
ferred without  modification.  So  also  has  Poseidon,  because  that  is 
the  common  English  spelling.  In  short,  the  practice  aimed  at  has 
been  not  that  of  scientific  uniformity,  but  of  acknowledged  poetic 
usage.  In  the  titles  of  the  illustrative  cuts,  Greek  names  have  been 
used  for  works  of  Greek  origin,  Latin  for  the  Roman. 

For  the  benefit  of  readers  who  do  not  know  the  fundamental 
rules  for  the  pronunciation  of  Greek  and  Latin  proper  names  in 
English,  a  brief  statement  of  nales  is  prefixed  to  the  Index ;  and 
in  the  Index  of  Mythological  Subjects  and  their  Sources  names 
are  not  only  accented,  but,  when  necessary,  diacritically  marked. 


X  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

In  the  preparation  of  the  Text  and  Commentary  more  or  less  use 
has  been  made  of :  Roscher's  Ausfiihrliches  Lexikon  der  grie- 
chischen  und  romischen  Mythologie  (Lieferungen  1-21,  Teubner, 
Leipzig);  Preller's  Griechische  Mythologie  (2  Bde.,  Berlin,  1861); 
Max  Miiller's  Chips  from  a  German  Workshop,  Science  of  Religion 
(London,  1873),  Science  of  Language  (7th  ed,,  2  vols.,  London, 
1873),  Oxford  Essays  (1856);  Sir  G.  W.  Cox's  Mythology  of  the 
Aryan  Nations  (2  vols.,  London,  1878) ;  Frazer's  Golden  Bough  ; 
W.  Warde  Fowler's  Roman  Festivals  (London,  1899);  Welcker's 
Griechische  Gotterlehre  ;  Baumeister's  Denkmaler  des  klassischen 
Alterthums;  Murray's  Manual  of  Mythology  (New  York,  1880); 
Smith's  Dictionary  of  Greek  and  Roman  Biography  and  My- 
thology ;  Duruy's  Histories  of  Rome  and  Greece ;  Keightley's 
Greek  and  Roman  Mythology;  Kelsey's  Outline  of  Greek  and 
Roman  Mythology  (Boston,  1889);  Horn's  Geschichte  der  Literatur 
des  skandinavischen  Nordens  (Leipzig,  1880)  ;  Cleasby  and 
Vigfusson's  Icelandic  Dictionary;  Liining's  Die  Edda  (Zurich, 
1859);  Vigfusson  and  Powell's  Corpus  Poeticum  Boreale  (2  vols., 
Oxford,  1883);  Paul's  Grundriss  der  germanischen  Philologie, 
I  Bd.,  5  Lfg.  (article  Mythologie,  by  E.  Mogk) ;  Grimm's  Teu- 
tonic Mythology  (translated  by  Stallybrass,  3  vols.) ;  Werner 
Hahn's  Das  Nibelungenlied ;  Lang's  Myth,  Ritual,  and  Religion 
(2  vols.,  London,  1887),  and  Mythology  (Encyc.  Brit.,  Vol.  9); 
Tylor's  Anthropology  (New  York,  1881)  and  Primitive  Culture 
(2  vols.)  ;  J.  W.  Powell's  Annual  Reports  of  the  Bureau  of  Eth- 
nology (7  vols.,  beginning  1 879-1 880,  Washington,  D.C.) ;  Keaiy's 
Outlines  of  Primitive  Belief ;  Fiske's  Myths  and  Myth-makers 
(Boston) ;  Whitney's  Oriental  and  Linguistic  Studies ;  W.  P. 
Johnston's  The  Origin  of  Myth ;  and  of  other  works  to  which 
due  reference  is  made  in  the  footnotes  and  Commentary.  The 
student  is  also  referred  to  F.  B.  Jevons'  edition  of  Plutarch's 
Romane  Questions,  translated  by  Philemon  Holland  (London,  1 892) 
(introduction  on  Roman  Mythology) ;  and  to  C.  G.  Leland's  Etruscan- 
Roman  Remains  in  Popular  Tradition  (London,  1892).  The  Maps, 


PREFACE  xi 

furnished  by  Messrs.  Ginn  and  Company  from  other  of  their  pub- 
lications, have,  with  the  kind  consent  of  the  authors  of  those  works, 
in  some  instances  been  adapted  by  me  to  suit  the  present  purpose. 

The  principal  authorities  used  in  the  selection  of  the  illus- 
trations of  this  new  edition  are :  Baumeister,  Denkmaler  des 
klassischen  Alterthums  (3  vols.,  Munich,  1888);  Furtwangler, 
Masterpieces  of  Greek  Sculpture  (London,  1905) ;  Ernest  Gard- 
ner, Ancient  Athens  (New  York  and  London,  1902) ;  Percy 
Gardner,  A  Grammar  of  Greek  Art  (New  York  and  London, 
1905)  ;  and  Sculptured  Tombs  of  Hellas  (London,  1896)  ;  Percy 
Gardner  and  Jevons,  A  Manual  of  Greek  Antiquities  (London, 
1 895) ;  Gerhard,  Auserlesene griechische  Vasenbilder  ( 1 840-1 8 58); 
Gusman,  Pompei  (London,  1900)  ;  Harrison  and  Maccoll,  Greek 
Vase  Paintings  (London,  1894);  E.  von  Mach,  Handbook  of 
Greek  and  Roman  Sculpture  (Boston,  1905) ;  and  Greek  Sculp- 
ture, Its  Spirit  and  Principles  (Boston,  1903)  ;  A.  S.  Murray, 
Handbook  of  Greek  Archaeology  (London,  1892);  History  of 
Greek  Sculpture  (2  vols.,  London,  1883)  ;  and  Sculptures  of  the 
Parthenon  (London,  1903)  ;  A.  S.  Murray  and  C.  A.  Hutton, 
Greek  Bronzes  and  Terra  Cotta  Statuettes  (London,  1898) ;  C.  O. 
Muller,  Denkmaler  der  alten  Kunst  (Gottingen,  1832) ;  Overbeck, 

Griechische  Kunstmythologie  (1871 );  Emil  Presuhn,  Pompeji, 

1 874-1 88 1  (Leipzig,  1882);  Salomon  Reinach,  Peintures  de 
vases  antiques  (including  the  collections  of  Millin,  1808,  and 
Millingen,  18 13  (Paris,  1891)),  and  Apollo  (Paris,  1907);  H. 
Roux  Ain6,  Herculaneum  and  Pompei ;  Roscher,  Ausfiihrliches 

Lexikon  der  griechischen  und  romischen  Mythologie  (1884 ) 

(Lieferungen  1-17  in  Vol.  I,  18  on  in  Vol.  H)  ;  Anton  Springer, 
Handbuch  der  Kunstgeschichte  (I  Alterthwn,  Leipzig,  1904)  ; 
Charles  Waldstein,  The  Argive  Heraeum  (2  vols.)  ;  and  the  archae- 
ological periodicals  as  cited  in  the  List  of  Illustrations. 

The  acknowledgment  of  assistance  made  in  the  former  edition 
is  here  renewed. 

CHARLES   MILLS   GAYLEY 


CONTENTS 

PAfiE 

INTRODUCTION xxix 

PART    I 
MYTHS  OF  DIVINITIES  AND   HEROES 

CHAPTER    I.     GREEK    MYTHS   OF  THE    CREATION    .         .  i 

Purpose  of  the  Study.  The  Fable  and  the  Myth.  Origin  of  the  World. 
Origin  of  the  Gods.  The  Rule  of  Cronus.  The  War  of  the  Titans.  The 
Division  of  Empire.  The  Reign  of  Jupiter.  The  Origin  of  Man.  Pro- 
metheus, a  Creator.  The  Age  of  Gold.  The  Silver  Age.  Prometheus, 
Champion  of  Man.  Pandora.  Prometheus  Bound.  Longfellow's  Pro- 
metheus. The  Brazen  Age.  The  Iron  Age.  The  Flood.  Deucalion  and 
Pyrrha.     The  Demigods  and  Heroes. 

CHAPTER  II.  THE  GODS  OF  HEAVEN    .    .    .    .   t8 

Olympus.  The  Great  Gods.  Jupiter  (Zeus).  Conceptions  of  Jupiter.  Juno 
(Hera).  Minerva  (Athene  or  Athena).  Mars  (Ares).  Vulcan  (Hephaestus). 
Apollo.  Shelley's  Hymn  of  Apollo.  Diana  (Artemis).  Jonson's  Hymn  to 
Cynthia.  Venus  (Aphrodite).  The  "  Venus  of  Milo."  Mercury  (Hermes). 
Vesta  (Hestia).    The  Lesser  Divinities  of  Heaven. 

CHAPTER  III.  THE  GODS  OF  EARTH     ....   42 

Conception  of  the  World.  Ceres  (Demeter).  Gasa  (Ge).  Bacchus  (Di- 
onysus).   The  Lesser  Divinities  of  Earth. 

CHAPTER    IV.    THE    GODS    OF  THE  UNDERWORLD  .       47 

The  Underworld.  Tartarus  and  the  Elysian  Fields.  The  Islands  of  the 
Blest.  Pluto  (Hades).  Proserpina  (Persephone).  The  Lesser  Divinities 
of  the  Underworld. 

CHAPTER  V.     THE    GODS    OF   THE  WATERS        .         .         -55 

The  Older  Dynasty.  The  Younger  Dynasty.  The  Lesser  Divinities  of  the 
Waters. 


XIV  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  VI.    THE   ROMAN    DIVINITIES     ....       59 
Gods  Common  to  Greece  and  Italy.    Italian  Gods. 

CHAPTER  VII.  MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF 
HEAVEN 64 

Myths  of  Jupiter  and  Juno.  Love  Affairs  of  Jupiter.  lo.  Callisto.  Europa. 
Semele.  ^^gina.  Antiope.  Jupiter,  a  Friend  of  Man.  Juno's  Best  Gift. 
Myths  of  Minerva.  Arachne.  Myths  of  Mars.  Mars  and  Diomede.  Mars 
and  Minerva.  The  Fortunes  of  Cadmus.  Myths  of  Vulcan.  Myths  of 
Apollo.  The  Wanderings  of  Latona.  Apollo,  the  Light  Triumphant. 
Hyacinthus.  Phaethon.  The  Plague  sent  upon  the  Greeks  before  Troy. 
The  Punishment  of  Niobe.  The  Lamentation  for  Linus,  .^sculapius. 
Apollo  in  Exile.  Lowell's  Shepherd  of  King  Admetus.  Admetus  and 
Alcestis.  Apollo,  the  Musician.  Apollo,  Pan,  and  Midas.  Shelley's  Hymn 
of  Pan.  Marsyas.  The  Loves  of  Apollo.  Daphne.  Marpessa.  Clytie. 
Myths  of  Diana.  The  Flight  of  Arethusa.  Shelley's  Arethusa.  The  Fate 
of  Actaeon.  The  Fortunes  and  Death  of  Orion.  The  Pleiads.  Endymion. 
Myths  of  Venus.  Adonis.  Cupid  and  Psyche.  Keats'  Ode  to  Psyche. 
Atalanta's  Race.  Hero  and  Leander.  Pygmalion  and  the  Statue.  Pyramus 
and  Thisbe.    Phaon.    The  Vengeance  of  Venus.    Myths  of  Mercury. 

CHAPTER   VIII.     MYTHS     OF    THE     GREAT     DIVINITIES 

OF  EARTH 152 

Myths  of  Bacchus.  The  Wanderings  of  Bacchus.  The  Story  of  Acetes. 
The  Choice  of  King  Midas. 

CHAPTER  IX.  FROM  THE  EARTH  TO  THE  UNDER- 
WORLD   159 

Myths  of  Ceres,  Pluto,  and  Proserpine.  The  Rape  of  Proserpine.  The 
Wanderings  of  Ceres.  Triptolemus  and  the  Eleusinian  Mysteries.  Orpheus 
and  Eurydice. 

CHAPTER   X.    MYTHS    OF    NEPTUNE,    RULER    OF    THE 

WATERS 169 

Lord  of  the  Sea.    Lord  of  Sta^eams  and  Fountains.    Pelops  and  Hippodamia. 

CHAPTER  XI.  MYTHS  OF  THE  LESSER  DIVINITIES  OF 
HEAVEN 172 

Myths  of  Stars  and  Winds.  Cephalus  and  Procris.  Dobson's  The  Death 
of  Procris.  Ceyx  and  Halcyone.  Aurora  and  Tithonus.  Tennyson's  Titho- 
nus.    Memnon. 


CONTENTS  XV 

CHAPTER  XII.    MYTHS  OF  THE  LESSER  DIVINITIES  OF  ^'^""^ 

EARTH,   ETC i8i 

Pan,  and  the  Personification  of  Nature.  Stedman's  Pan  in  Wall  Street. 
Other  Lesser  Gods  of  Earth.  Echo  and  Narcissus.  Echo,  Pan,  Lyde,  and 
the  Satyr.  The  Naiads.  The  Dryads,  or  Hamadryads.  Erysichthon.  Dry- 
ope,   Rhoecus.    Pomona  and  Vertumnus.    The  Cranes  of  Ibycus. 

CHAPTER  XIII.  MYTHS  OF  LESSER  DIVINITIES  OF  THE 
WATERS 198 

Galatea  and  Polyphemus.  Glaucus  and  Scylla.  Nisus  and  Scylla.  Leu- 
cothea.  Proteus  and  Aristaeus.  Acheloiis  and  Hercules.  Milton's  Sabrina 
Fair. 

CHAPTER  XIV.  MYTHS  OF  THE  OLDER  HEROES:  THE 
HOUSE  OF  DANAUS,  AND  ITS  CONNECTIONS    .    .  206 

The  Older  and  the  Younger  Heroes.  The  Genealogy  of  Danaiis.  The 
Danaids.  The  Doom  of  King  Acrisius.  Perseus  and  Medusa.  Perseus  and 
Atlas.  Perseus  and  Andromeda.  Bellerophon  and  the  Chimaera.  Hercules 
(Heracles)  :  His  Youth.  His  Labors.  His  Later  Exploits.  The  Loss  of 
Hylas.  The  Rescue  of  Daphnis.  The  Expedition  against  Laomedon.  The 
Death  of  Hercules. 

CHAPTER  XV.    THE   FAMILY  OF  ^OLUS     .         .         .         .229 

Descendants  of  Deucalion.  The  Quest  of  the  Golden  Fleece.  The  Return 
of  the  Argonauts.    Medea  and  .^Eson.    Pelias. 

CHAPTER  XVI.  THE  FAMILY  OF  ^TOLUS  AND  ITS 
CONNECTIONS 237 

The  Calydonian  Hunt.  Merope.  Castor  and  Pollux.  The  Twin  Brethren 
among  the  Romans. 

CHAPTER  XVII.    THE    HOUSE    OF   MINOS    .         .         .         .246 
Minos  of  Crete.    Daedalus  and  Icarus. 

CHAPTER  XVIII.    THE  HOUSE  OF  CECROPS  AND  ERICH- 
THONIUS 249 

From  Cecrops  to  Philomela.  Matthew  Arnold's  Philomela.  Theseus. 
Theseus  and  Ariadne.  Bacchus  and  Ariadne.  The  Amazons.  Theseus 
and  Pirithoiis.    Phaedra  and  Hippolytus. 


xvi  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  XIX.    THE  HOUSE  OF  LABDACUS       .         .         .261 
The  Misfortunes  of  Thebes.    CEdipus  and  the  Sphinx.    CEdipus,  the  King. 
CEdipus  at  Colonus. 

CHAPTER  XX.    MYTHS  OF  THE  YOUNGER  FiEROES  :  THE 

SEVEN  AGAINST  THEBES •.         .265 

Their  Exploits.    The  Seven  against  Thebes.    Antigone.    The  Epigoni. 

CHAPTER  XXI.     HOUSES   CONCERNED  IN  THE  TROJAN 

WAR 269 

Three  Families.    Peleus.    Achilles,  Son  of  Peleus.    Atreus.    Tyndareus. 

CHAPTER   XXII.    THE   TROJAN   WAR 277 

Its  Origin.  Iphigenia  in  Aulis.  Protesilaiis  and  Laodamia.  Homer's  Iliad. 
The  Wrath  of  Achilles.  The  Enlistment  of  the  Gods.  Thetis  intercedes 
for  Achilles.  Agamemnon  calls  a  Council.  Paris  plays  the  Champion. 
Helen  surveys  the  Grecian  Host.  Menelaiis  defeats  Paris.  The  Two  Days' 
Battle.  Hector  and  Andromache.  Neptune  aids  the  Discouraged  Greeks. 
Jupiter  inspirits  the  Trojans.  Achilles  and  Patroclus.  Patroclus  in  the 
Armor  of  Achilles.  The  Deaths  of  Sarpedon  and  Patroclus.  The  Remorse 
of  Achilles.  The  Reconciliation  of  Agamemnon  and  Achilles.  The  Death  of 
Hector.    Achilles  drags  the  Body  of  Hector.    Priam  in  the  Tent  of  Achillea. 

CHAPTER  XXIII.  THE  FALL  OF  TROY  .  .  .  .307 
The  Fall  of  Troy.  The  Death  of  Achilles.  Contest  for  the  Arms  of  Achilles. 
Paris  and  CEnone.  The  Palladium.  The  Wooden  Horse.  Laocoon  and  the 
Serpents.  The  Death  of  Priam.  The  Survivors.  Helen,  Menelaiis,  and 
Agamemnon.  Electra  and  Orestes.  Orestes  pursued  by  the  Furies.  His 
Purification. 

CHAPTER  XXIV.    THE   WANDERINGS    OF   ULYSSES  .     318 

From  Troy  to  Phseacia.  The  Lotos-eaters.  The  Cyclopes.  The  Bag  of 
Winds.  The  Laestrygonians.  The  Isle  of  M^cES..  Ulysses  visits  Hades. 
The  Sirens.  Scylla  and  Charybdis.  The '  Cattle  of  the  Sun.  Calypso's 
Island.  The  Land  of  the  Phaeacians.  Fate  of  the  Suitors.  Tennyson's 
Ulysses. 

CHAPTER  XXV.    ADVENTURES   OF  ^NEAS         .         -         .346 
From  Troy  to  Italy.    The  Departure  from  Troy.    The  Promised  Empire, 
The   Harpies.    Epirus.    The  Cyclopes  Again.    The  Resentment  of  Juno. 
The  Sojourn  at  Carthage.    Dido.    Palinurus.     Italy  at  Last.    The  Sibyl  of 
Cumae.    The  Infernal  Regions.  The  Elysian  Fields.    The  Valley  of  Oblivion. 


CONTENTS  XVll 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  XXVI.  THE  WAR  BETWEEN  TROJANS  AND 
LATINS 362 

The  Fulfillment  of  Prophecy.  The  Gates  of  Janus  Opened.  Camilla.  Alli- 
ance with  Evander.  The  Site  of  Future  Rome.  Turnus  attacks  the  Trojan 
Camp.  Nisus  and  Euryalus.  The  Death  of  Mezentius.  The  Deaths  of 
Pallas  and  Camilla.    The  Final  Conflict. 

CHAPTER  XXVII.  MYTHS  OF  THE  NORSE  GODS  .  .  373 
The  Creation.  Yggdrasil.  Odin  and  his  Valhalla.  The  Valkyries.  Thor. 
and  the  Other  Gods.  Loki  and  his  Progeny.  The  Conflict  with  the  Moun- 
tain Giants.  The  Recovery  of  Thor's  Hammer.  Thor's  Visit  to  Jotunheim. 
The  Sword  of  Freyr.  The  Death  of  Balder.  The  Funeral  of  Balder.  The 
Elves.    Ragnarok. 

CHAPTER  XXVIII.  MYTHS  OF  NORSE  AND  OLD  GER- 
MAN   HEROES 398 

The  Saga  of  the  Volsungs.    The  Lay  of  the  Nibelungs. 

CHAPTER  XXIX.    THE    RING   OF  THE    NIBELUNG     .         .     410 
Wagner's    Tetralogy.    The    Rhine-gold.    The    Valkyrie.     Siegfried.    The 
Twilight  of  the  Gods. 

PART  II 
THE  HISTORY  OF  MYTH 

CHAPTER  XXX.    THE  ORIGIN  AND  ELEMENTS  OF  MYTH     431 

Kinds  of  Myth.  Divisions  of  Inquiry.  Elements  of  the  Myth.  Reasonable 
Myths.  Unreasonable  Myths.  Theory  of  Deterioration.  Theory  of  Progress. 

CHAPTER  XXXI.    THE   DISTRIBUTION    OF   MYTHS  .         .     447 
Theories  of  Resemblance. 

CHAPTER   XXXII.    THE    PRESERVATION    OF   MYTHS        .     45° 
Traditional  History.    In  Greece.    Roman  Poets  of  Mythology.    Records  of 
Norse  Mythology.    Records  of  German  Mythology.    Records  of  Oriental 
Mythology :  Egyptian.   Indian  Records.    Persian  Records. 

COMMENTARY 465 

RULES   FOR  PRONUNCIATION 54i 

INDEX  OF  MYTHOLOGICAL   SUBJECTS  AND   SOURCES    .     543 
INDEX  OF  MODERN  AUTHORS  AND  ARTISTS  .         .         .582 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIGURE  PAGE 

1.  Jupiter  surveying  the  World.     Roman  Wall  Painting,  Naples:   Hercu- 

laneiini  and  Pompeii,  by  H.  Ronx  Aine 3 

2.  Athena   and   Giant.      Greek   Bronze,    Mus.  Kircherianum :  Journal  of 

Hellenic  Studies,  4,  go 7 

3.  Zeus  and  Giants.     Ancient  Gem  :  Baumeisterj,  lygi 8 

4.  Prometheus  making  Man.    Roman  Sarcophagus  in  the  Capitoline  :  Baii- 

meister  3,  1^68 9 

Upper  row,  from  left  to  right :  Oceanus,  the  Sun-god,  Clotho,  Lachesis,  etc. 
Lower  row:  Cupid  and  Psyche,  Gaea  (Tellus),  Prometheus,  the  newly  created 
Man  to  whom  Minerva  gives  life  (the  butterfly).  Death,  Cupid  with  down- 
turned  torch,  the  first  man  dead,  Atropos,  Mercury. 

5.  Poseidon  (Neptune),  Dionysus  (Bacchus)  and  Goddess.     East  Frieze, 

Parthenon,  in  the  British  Museum  :  Photograph 17 

6.  Two  Hours.     Greek  Vase  Painting,  St.  Petersburg:  Roscher  i,  2^2^  .    .  iS 

7.  Zeus  from  Dodona.     Greek  Bronze  :  Photograph 20 

8.  Zeus  after  Phidias.    Coin  of  Elis  :  A.  S.  Murray,  Greek  Brotizes,  opp.  p.  81  21 

9.  Hera  of  Argos.     Greek  Marble  :  Argive  Heraum,  i 22 

10.  Athena  Velletri.    Ancient  Marble  in  the  Louvre  :  Photograph      ....  23 

1 1 .  Ares  Ludovisi.    Ancient  Marble  in  Rome  :  Photograph 24 

12.  Ares  (Mars).    Painting  by  Raphael:  Photograph 25 

13.  The  Forge  of  Vulcan.    Roman  Relief :  Baumeisterj,  1640 25 

14.  Apollo  (so-called  Adonis).    Ancient  Marble  in  the  Vatican:  Photograph  26 

15.  Apollo  Belvedere.    Ancient  Marble  in  the  Vatican  :  Photograph      ...  27 

16.  Apollo.    Greek  Bronze  from  Thessaly,  British  Museum:  Mun-ay,  Greek 

Bronzes,  Fig.  28 28 

17.  Diana.    Painting  by  Correggio:  Photograph 29 

18.  Diana  (Artemis)  of  Versailles.  Ancient  Marble  in  the  Louvre :  Z^^/^^^nz//^  30 
[9.  Artemis   Knagia.     Ancient  Silver  Medallion  from  Herculaneum :    Ro- 
scher I,  j66 31 

20.  Hermes  Psychopompos.    Greek  Stele  of  Myrrhina :  P.  Gardner,  Sculp- 

tured Tombs,  Fig.  y2 34 

Hermes  (Mercury)  leading  to  the  underworld  the  spirit  of  a  lady,  Myrrhina, 
who  has  just  died.    From  a  relief  on  her  tomb. 

21.  Eros  (Cupid).    Ancient  Marble,  Naples :  Photograph 36 

22.  Rape  of  Ganymede.    Ancient  Marble  in  the  Vatican:  Baumtister  2,  8gi      37 

23.  Polyhymnia.    Ancient  Marble,  Berlin  :  Baumeister  2,  ii8j 37 

xix 


XX  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

FIGURE  PAGF. 

24.  The  Three  Fates.    Painting  attributed  to  Michelangelo,  but  recently  con- 

jectured to  be  by  Rosso  Fiorentino.    Florence  :  Photograph   ....  38 

25.  Boreas.    Greek  Reliefs,  Athens :  Batimeisterj,  2jyo 39 

26.  Zephyros.    Greek  Reliefs,  Athens :  Baiimeisterj,  sjjo 39 

27.  Boreas  carrying  off  Orithyia.  Greek  Vase  Painting,  Munich :  Baiimeister  /, 

373    ■    ■    ■    ■    ■ 40 

28.  Iris  carrying  Child.  Vase  Painting:  Gerhard,  Aiiserlesene  Vasenbilder,  2,  8j      41 

29.  Demeter  of  Knidos.    Greek  Marble  in  the  British  Museum  :  E.  vo?i  Mach, 

Handbook  of  Greek  and  Roman  Sctilpturc,  Plate  247 42 

30.  Ceres.    Roman  Wall  Painting :  /.  Weir,  Greek  Painting,  p.  J4j    ....      43 

31.  Dionysus  and  the  Vine.    Ancient  Marble  in  the  British  Museum:  Ro- 

scher  i,  2g2 44 

32.  Pan  the  Hunter.    Ancient  Terra  Cotta  :  Murray  and  Hutton,  Plate  VI  .  45 

33.  A  Satyr  with  Grafting  Materials.    Ancient  Gem  :  Pine's  Virgil  ....  46 

34.  The  Greek  Underworld.    Ancient  Vase  Painting  from  Canusium :  Baii- 

meister j,  2042  B 48 

Center:  Hades  and  Persephone.  Above,  left:  Megara,  wife  of  Heracles, 
and  two  of  her  children,  slain  by  Heracles  when  mad.  Above,  right :  a  Fury 
guarding  Pirithoiis  and  Theseus.  Middle,  left :  Orpheus  playing  and  dancing, 
and  an  unknown  family  group.  Middle,  right:  the  three  judges  of  the  dead. 
Below:  Sisyphus,  a  Fury,  Hermes,  Heracles  with  Cerberus,  a  Fury,  Tantalus. 

35.  Hermes  conducting  a  Soul  to  Charon.    Ancient  Terra  Cotta:  Archdolo- 

gische  Zeitung,  Berlin 49 

36.  Hypnos  (Somnus,  Sleep).  Murray,  Greek  Bronzes,  opp.  p.  ^2 50 

37.  A  Fury.    Ancient  Vase  Painting:  Roscher  i,  /jj4 51 

38.  Hades.   Ancient  Marble  in  the  Villa  Borghese,  Rome  :  Baumeister  i ,  6go  53 

39.  Death,  Sleep,  and  Hermes  laying  a  Body  in  the  Tomb.    Ancient  Vase 

Painting  :  P.  Gardner,  Sculptured  Tombs,  Fig.  5 54 

40.  Poseidon  from  Dodona.    Greek  Bronze  in  the  British  Museum  :  Murray, 

Greek  Bronzes,  Fig.  J2 55 

41.  Wedding  of  Poseidon  and  Amphitrite.   Ancient  Marble  Frieze,  Munich: 

Baumeister  J,  1744  B 56 

42.  Triton  carrying  off  a  Nymph.    Ancient  Marble  in  the  Vatican :  Bau- 

nieisterj,  igb4 57 

43.  Bearded  Janus.    Roman  Coin  :  Baumeister  2,  iibb  A 60 

44.  Genius  Loci.  Wall  Painting  from  Herculaneum.in  the  Naples  Museum  : 

Gusman,  Pompei,p.  lOJ 62 

45.  Ganymede  feeding   the   Eagle.    Ancient   Relief:    Pietro  Santi  Bartoli, 

Gli.  Atitichi  Sepolcri 64 

46.  Hermes  (Mercury)  kills  Argus  in  presence  of  Zeus.   Ancient  Vase  Paint- 

ing :   Roscher  2,  2'jg 65 

47.  lo,  Argus,  and  Mercury.  Wall  Painting  from  Herculaneum  in  the  Naples 

Museum  :  Baumeister  i,  802 66 

48.  Europa  on  the  Bull.    Greek  Vase  Painting :  Harrison- Maccoll,  Plate  IV     69 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  xxi 

FIGURE  PACE 

49.  Nereids  on  Sea  Beasts.    Ancient  Marble  Frieze  in  Munich :  Banmeister 

3,  1744A 70 

50.  Youthful  Bacchus  embracing  Semele  in  presence  of  Apollo  and  a  Satyr. 

Etruscan  Mirror,  Berlin  :  Baumeister  i,  J57 71 

51.  Amphion  and  Zethus.    Ancient  Relief  in  the   Palazzo   Spada,   Rome  : 

Roscker  2,  jii 76 

52.  Contest  of  Athena  and  Poseidon  for  the  Supremacy  of  Athens.   Ancient 

Vase  Painting,  St.  Petersburg :  Baumeister  j,  1^42 83 

53.  Athena.   Ancient  Marble  in  Hope  Collection  :  Furtwdngler,  Masterpieces, 

f'g-27 85 

54.  Cadmus  slaying  the  Dragon.     Ancient  Vase   Painting,  Naples :    Bau- 

meister 2,  822 87 

Athena  counseling.  Above :  river-god  Ismenos,  fountain-nymph  Krene, 
and  personification  of  Thebes. 

55.  Harmonia  in  Company  of  Deities.    Greek  Vase   Painting :   Epkemeris, 

i8g7-i8g8,  Plate  X 89 

Aphrodite,  Eros,  Harmonia  standing,  Peitho  (Persuasion)  sitting,  and  Kore, 
Hebe,  Himeros  (Desire). 

56.  The  Forge  of  Vulcan.    Painting  by  Velasquez :  Photograph 90 

57.  A  Sacrifice  to  Apollo.    Greek  Vase  Painting :   Gardner-Jevons  Manual, 

p.  24g,  Fig.  16 91 

58.  Apollo  with  Hyacinthus.    Ancient  Marble  in  Hope  Collection :  Roscher 

16-17,  276s 93 

59.  The  Fall  of  Phaethon.    Roman  Relief  in  the  Louvre:  Baumeister  j,  i44g      97 

Upper  left-hand  comer:  Phaethon  making  his  request  of  Helios  (Phcebus). 
Below :  the  Heliades  turning  into  trees.  Center :  the  maddened  horses,  one 
chariot  wheel,  and  Phaethon  falling  into  the  arms  of  Eridanus.  The  horsemen 
left  and  right  of  the  four  horses  are  Castor  and  Pollux.  Earth-gods,  sea-gods, 
and  other  figures. 

60.  A  Son  of  Niobe.    Ancient  Marble  in  Florence :  Baumeister  j,  17^1    .    .     100 

61.  The  Children  of  Niobe.    Ancient  Relief,  St.  Petersburg:  Baianeister j, 

1759 loi 

62.  Niobe  and  her' Youngest  Daughter.    Ancient  Marble,  Florence:  Bau- 

meisterj,  1746 102 

63.  ^sculapius  (Asklepios).   Ancient  Marble,  Florence :  Furttvdtigler,  Alaster- 

pieces.  Fig.  87 104 

64.  Admetus  must  Die.    Wall  painting  from  Herculaneum  in  Naples :  Baic- 

meister  I,  jj 106 

65.  Heracles.    Ancient  Marble  in  Lansdowne  House :  Photograph     ....     108 

66.  The  Palatine  Apollo.   Ancient  Marble  in  Vatican :  Baumeister  i,  104  .   .     no 

67.  Daphne.    Ancient  Marble  :  Springer,  Kunstgeschichte,  i ,  33b 113 

68.  Artemis  (Diana).    Ancient  Marble,  Dresden :  Furtwdngler,  Masterpieces, 

P-32S "7 

69.  Arethusa.    Ancient  Coin  :  Baumeister  2,  11 40 118 


XXI 1  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

FIGURE  PAGK 

70.  A  Young  River-god.   Ancient  Bronze  Head  :  Koscher  9,  i^Sg     ....119 

71.  Actaeon.    Ancient  Marble  Relief :  Baumeister  i,  41 121 

72.  The  Pleiades.    Painting  by  Elihu  Vedder :  Photograph 123 

73.  Endymion.   Ancient  Relief  in  the  Capitoline,  Rome :  E.  von  Mack,  Hand- 

book of  Greek  and  Roman  Sculpture,  Plate  jo6    124 

74.  The  Death  of  Adonis.    Ancient  Marble  in  the  Louvre  :  Bau?neister  i,  ij    127 

Right:  Adonis  leaves  Venus.   Center:  he  is  wounded.    Left:  he  is  cared 
for  by  Venus,  Cupid,  and  attendants. 

75.  Psyche  at  the  Couch  of  Cupid.    Painting  by  Thumann  :  Photograph    .    .     130 

76.  Psyche  and  Cupid  on  Mount  Olympus.    Painting  by  Thumann :  Photo- 

graph   136 

77.  Artemis  of  Gabii.    Ancient  Marble  in  the  Louvre  :  E.  von  Mach,  Hand- 

book of  Greek  and  Roman  Sculpture,  Plate  soy    139 

78.  Atalanta's  Race.    Painting  by  Poynter :  Photograph 140 

79.  Hero  and  Leander.    Painting  by  Keller :  Photog>-aph 144 

80.  Thisbe.    Painting  by  Edward  Burne-Jones :  Photograph  .    .  ' 148 

81.  Hermes  and  Dog  disguised  as  Pig.     Ancient  Vase  Painting,  Vienna: 

Harrison-Maccoll,  Plate  XXXIII  a 151 

82.  Silenus  taking  Dionysus  (Bacchus)  to  School.    Ancient  Terra  Cotta : 

Murray  and  Hutton,  Pig.  j6 152 

83.  Bearded  Dionysus  on  Mule,  attended  by  Satyr.    Old  Greek  Terra  Cotta 

Relief :  Baumeister  i,  481 1 53 

84.  Satyr  and  Maenad  with  Child  Dionysus.    Ancient  Relief:  Baumeister  2, 

932 154 

85.  Dionysus  at  Sea.    Greek  Vase  Painting  in  the  Pinakothek,  Munich: 

Harrison-Maccoll,  Plate  I 155 

86.  Bacchic  Procession.    Greek  Vase  Painting :  Arch.  Zeit. 156 

87.  Dionysus  visiting  a  Poet.  Ancient  ReUef,  Naples:  Baumeister 3,  iS^g  157 

88.  Rape  of  Proserpina.    Ancient  Relief :  Baumeister  i,  461 1 59 

89.  Hades  and  Persephone.    Ancient  Terra  Cotta :  P.  Gardner,  Sculptured 

Tombs,  Fig.  2g 161 

90.  Sacrifice  to  Demeter  and  Persephone.    Greek  Relief  in  Paris :  Bau- 

meister i,  4^y 162 

91.  Triptolemus  and  the  Eleusinian  Deities.   Greek  Vase  Painting:  Bau- 

meister 3,  ig^8 164 

Demeter  behind  the  chariot  and  Persephone  and  the  nymph  Eleusis  Ln  front 

92.  Demeter  (Ceres),  Triptolemus,  and  Proserpina.    Greek  Relief:  E.  von 

Mach,  Handbook  of  Greek  and  Roman  Sculpture,  Plate  f/S     ....     165 

93.  Orpheus  and  Eurydice.    Painting  by  Lord  Leighton :  Photograph    ...     166 

94.  Farewell  of  Orpheus  and  Eurydice  (Mercury  ready  to  lead  her  away). 

Ancient  Marble  Relief  in  Villa  Albani,  Rome  :  Photograph    ....     167 

95.  Isthmian  Poseidon.     Ancient    Marble  in    Lateran:   Springer,  A'uttsige- 

schichte,  i.  Fig.  ^gj l6g 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  xxiii 

FIGURE  PAGE 

96.-  Pelops  winning  the    Race;    Hippodamia  looking  on.    Ancient  Vase 

Painting:  Baumetster 2,  ijg^ 171 

97.  Phosphor,  Eos,  and  Helios  (the  Sun)  rising  from  the  Sea.   Ancient  Vase 

Painting:    Gerhard,  Akaderniscke  Abhandliifigoi 172 

98.  Sun,   rising,    preceded   by  Dawn.    Painting   by  Guido   Reni :    Photo- 

graph   173 

99.  Sunrise;   Eos  (Dawn)  pursuing  Cephalus.    Greek  Vase  Painting:   P. 

Gardner,  Grammar  of  Greek  Ai-t,  Fig.  yi 174 

The  young  stars  descending ;  to  the  left,  the  moon  (Selene)  riding  over 

the  hills. 

100.  The  God  of  Sleep.    Ancient  Relief  :  Batimeister  i,  jyo 176 

loi.  The  Death  of  Memnon  (Aurora  lifting  his  body).    Greek  Vase  Painting 

in  the  Louvre  :  Ha7Tiso7t-Maccoll,  Plate  XVIII 180 

102.  Pan  blowing  his  Pipe,  Echo  answering.    Ancient  Earthenware  Lamp : 

Baumeister  I,  J14. 182 

103.  The  Music  Lesson  (Pan  teaching  a  Boy).    Ancient  Marble,  Florence: 

Baumeister  2,  1340 184 

104.  Bacchic  Dance  (Nymph  and  Satyrs).    Ancient  Relief:  Baumeister 3, 

1931 184 

105.  Silenus.    From  an  ancient  candelabrum  in  Munich:  Baumeister 2,  8gj    185 

106.  Satyr  (Marble  Faun).   Ancient  Marble  in  the  Capitoline,  Rome  :  Photo- 

graph   186 

107.  Satyr  swinging  Maiden.   Greek  Vase  Painting  in  Berlin:  Harrison-Mac- 

coll,  Plate  XXXII 186 

108.  Satyr  drinking  from  Amphora.    Ancient  Vase  Painting  in  Baltimore: 

Harrison- Afaccoll,  Plate  IX 187 

109.  Narcissus  gazing  at  his  Reflection.  Wall  Painting  from  Pompeii,  Naples  : 

Baumeister  2,  J 2 13 188 

no.  A  Rustic.    Wall  Painting  from  Herculaneum 195 

111.  A  Rustic.    Wall  Painting  from  Herculaneum 196 

112.  Galatea  and   Polyphemus.    Wall   Painting  in   House   of  Germanicus, 

Rome:  Roscher  g,  i^Sj 199 

113.  A  Sea-god,  perhaps  Glaucus.    Ancient  Marble  in  Vatican:  Baumeister 

2,  gSy 200 

114.  Nereids  and  Sea  Monsters.    Ancient  Relief :  Baumeister  2,  121b  .    .    .  204 

115.  The  Danaids.    Ancient  Marble  Relief  in  Vatican  :  Roscker  b,  g^i      .    .  207 

116.  Danae  and  Perseus  and  the  Chest.    Greek  Vase  Painting  in  St.  Peters- 

burg :  Hai-rison-Maccoll,  Plate  XXXIV 208 

117.  Medusa  Rondanini  (Front  View).    Ancient  Marble  in  Munich:  Ftirt- 

wdngler,  Masterpieces,  Fig.  b3 209 

118.  Medusa  Rondanini  (Profile).   Ancient  Marble  in  Munich:  Furtwdngler, 

Masterpieces,  Fig.  b3 209 

119.  Perseus.    Marble  by  Cellini  in  Florence  :  Photograph 210 

120.  Perseus  with  the  Head  of  Medusa.  Ancient  Vase  Painting  :  Gerhard    .    211 


xxiv  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

FIGURE  PAGE 

121.  Perseus  finds  Andromeda.   Ancient  Vase  Painting  in  Museum,  Berlin:- 

Jahrbuch  des  D.  Arch.  Instituts  XI  {i8g6),  Plate  II 212 

Right :  Aphrodite  holding  wreath  over  Perseus'  head.    Left :   Cepheus 
seated,  Hermes  with  his  wand,  and  an  Ethiopian  inhabitant. 

122.  Bellerophon  and  Pegasus.    Ancient  Relief :  Baiimeisier  i,  j/y  .     .    .    .    215 

123.  Heracles  strangling  the  Nemean  Lion.    Greek  Vase  Painting  in  British 

Museum:   Baumeister  1,  ^22 217 

Left:   lolaiis  and  the  local  nymph  Nemea.    Right:  Athena  and  Hermes. 

124.  Heracles  killing  the  Hydra  (behind  him  Athena  and  lolaiis).    Greek 

Vase  Painting:  Baumeister  i,  ^24 217 

125.  Heracles  bringing  Home  the  Boar  (Eurystheus  hiding  in  a  wine  jar). 

Greek  Vase  Painting  :  Ilarri son- Maccoll,  Plate  XII 218 

126.  Heracles  with  the  Bull:  Metope  of  the  Temple  of  Zeus  at  Olympia: 

Baumeister  2,  128^ 219 

127.  Heracles  and  Cerberus.    Greek  Vase  Painting :  Baumeister  i,  yjo    .    .    220 

Left :  Athena  and  Hermes.   Right :  Goddess  of  the  Underworld. 

128.  Heracles  and  Antaeus.  Greek  Vase  Painting  in  Athens  :  Harrison- Mac- 

coll,  Plate  XXIV 221 

129.  Hercules  and  Nessus  (Dejanira  in  Chariot).    Wall  Painting  from  Pom- 

peii :   Baumeister  i,  ■/jj        226 

130.  The  Building  of  the  Argo,  Athene  directing.     Ancient  Terra  Cotta 

Relief  in  the  British  Museum:  Baumeister  j,  i2y 229 

131.  Jason  conquers  the  Bulls  and   steals  the  Fleece.    Ancient  Relief  in 

Vienna:   Baumeister  2,  g8/ 231 

Center :  ^etes  seated.    Right :  Medea  assists  her  lover. 

132.  Medea  deliberating  upon  the  Murder  of  her  C'hildren.   Wall  Painting 

from  Herculaneum  :  Baumeister  2,  g48 234 

133.  Medea    and    Daughters    of   Pelias    preparing   the    Caldron.     Ancient 

Marble  Relief,  Berlin:  Photop-aph 235 

134.  Meleager  on  the  Boar  Hunt.    Roman  Relief :  ^awwrn/^r .?,  990     .     .    .    238 

Atalanta  appears  twice, —  as  before  the  hunt  to  the  left  of  the  central  figures, 
as  during  the  hunt  in  front  of  Meleager,  and  shooting  an  arrow  into  the  boar. 

135.  The  Death  of  Meleager.    Roman  Sarcophagus  in  the  Louvre:  Bau- 

meister 2,  ggi 241 

Right :  the  contest  between  Meleager  and  his  uncles.  Left :  Althasa  put-' 
ling  the  fateful  brand  into  the  fire  ;  behind  her  a  Fury  whose  torch  has  lighted 
the  fire.   Center:  the  dying  Meleager,  and  Atalanta  seated  mourning. 

136.  137.  Castor  and  Pollux  capturing  the  Giant  Talus.   Ancient  Vase  Paint- 

ing: Baumeister ^,  1804 '    .     .     244,  245 

Pollux  on  foot  in  front  of  Medea.  Seated  Deities  on  right,  Poseidon  and 
Amphitrite. 

138.  Daedalus   and    Icarus.    Ancient   Relief   in    the    Villa   Albani,   Rome: 

Roscho  6,  gj4 247 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  XXV 

FIGURE  PAGE 

139.  So-called   Theseus.    Greek    Marble  in  the  Parthenon:   Baumeister  2, 

1370 249 

140.  y^thra  caresses  Theseus  and  sends  him  forth  with  his  Father's  Sword. 

Greek  Vase  Painting,  St.  Petersburg:  Harrison-Afaccoll,  Plate  XXII    251 

141.  Theseus  receiving  Thanks  from  the  Rescued  after  killing  the  Minotaur. 

Campanian  Wall  Painting  in  Naples:  Batcmeisier j,  i8'j6      ....     252 

142.  The   Sleeping   Ariadne.    Ancient   Marble  in  Vatican:    Baumeister  i, 

130 254 

143.  Head  of  Dionysus.    Ancient  Marble,  Leyden  :  Rosche^-  j,  1128      .    .    .    256 

144.  The  Revels  of  Bacchus  and  Ariadne.    Roman  Sarcophagus  :  Baumeister 

1^492       257 

Large  figures  from  left  to  right:  Priest,  Satyr,  Maenad,  Mercury,  Bacchus 
and  Ariadne  seated.  Satyr,  Maenad,  priest.  Small  figures  :  Desire  (Himeros) 
and  Love  leading  Pan  captive,  followed  by  Silenus. 

145.  Lapith  and   Centaur  fighting.     Greek    Metope  from    the    Parthenon, 

British   Museum:  Photograph 259 

146.  CEdipus  and  the   Sphinx.    Greek  Vase  Painting:  P.   Gardner,   Gram- 

mar of  Greek  Art,  Fig.  yo 261 

147.  Eteocles  and  Polynices  kill  each  other.     Etruscan  Relief,  Florence: 

Baumeister  J,  1841 266 

148.  The  Gods  bring  Wedding  Gifts.    Ancient  Relief  from  the  Villa  Albani, 

Rome:  Baumeister  i,  j§g 271 

From  right  to  left,  married  couple,  Vulcan,  Minerva,  the  four  seasons 
(Winter,  Spring,  Summer,  Autumn)  Hymen  with  torch,  Comus,  Amor  push- 
ing jealous  deity  away. 

149.  Map  of  the  Troad  and  the  Hellespont 273 

150.  Helen    persuaded   by   Aphrodite;    Paris   (Alexander)   held    by   Love. 

Ancient  Relief  in  Naples  :  E.  von  Mach,  Handbook,  Plate  J12    .     .     .     277 

151.  Achilles  taken  from  Scyros  by  Ulysses  (to  the  right)  and  Diomedes  (to 

the  left).    Pompeian  Wa41  Painting,  Naples :  Koscher  i,  2j    .    .    .    .    279 

152.  The  Sacrifice  of  Iphigenia.    Pompeian  Wall  Painting,  Naples:  Bau- 

meister J,  So'j       28 1 

153.  The  Surrender  of  Brisei's.    Relief  by  Thorwaldsen  :  Photograph     .    .    .  284 

154.  Hector's  Farewell.    Relief  by  Thorwaldsen  :  Photograph 291 

155,156.  The   Embassy  to   Achilles.    Greek    Vase   Painting:  P.    Gardner, 

Grammar  of  Greek  Art,  Fig.  ya 294,  295 

Left  section  :  Briseis  is  led  away.  Right  section  :  Ajax  and  Ulysses,  lean- 
ing on  staff,  plead  with  Achilles ;  at  the  right.  Phoenix. 

157.  The  Battle  by  the  Ships.    Greek  Vase  Painting:  Baumeister i,  y8j  .    .     296 

Perhaps  the  moment  when  Ajax  retreats.   Hector  presses  upon  him  followed 
by  a  youth  with  a  torch.   At  the  extreme  right,  Paris  drawing  a  bow. 

158.  Supposed   Menelalis  with  the   Body   of    Patroclus.     Ancient   Marble, 

Florence  :  Baumeister  i,  y8^ 298 


xxvi  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

F.GURE  .  PAGE 

159.  Contest  of  Achilles  and  Hector.   Ancient  Vase  Painting  :  Baumeister  i, 

788 302 

Left:  Athene.   Right:  Apollo. 

160.  Achilles  over  the  Body  of  Hector  at  the  Tomb  of  Patroclus  (whose 

shade  is  running  above  the  tomb).   Greek  Vase  Painting :  F.  Gardner, 
Sculptured  Tombs,  Fig.  40 303 

161.  Priam's  Visit  to  Achilles  (under  whose  couch  lies  the  body  of  Hector). 

Greek  Vase  Painting :  Baumeister  i,  "jgi 304 

Achilles  has  been  taking  his  dinner.   Servants  bear  gifts  behind  Priam. 

162.  Achilles  and  the  Amazon   Penthesilea.    Greek  Vase  Painting:   Bati- 

meister  J,  212J 307 

163.  CEnone  warning  Paris  not  to  sail  for  Greece.    Ancient  Relief  in  the 

Villa  Ludovisi,  Rome  :  Baumeister  2,  ij6o 309 

164.  The  Wooden  Horse.    Ancient  Gem  :  Baumeister  i,  7^4 310 

165,166.  The  Sack  of  Troy.    Greek  Vase  Painting,  Naples:   Baumeister  i, 

795 312,  313 

Priam  on  altar,  Astyanax  on  his  lap,  and  Polites,  whom  Pyrrhus  has  just 
killed,  at  his  feet.  Pyrrhus  is  about  to  strike  Priam.  Behind  him  rushes 
Andromache  to  strike  a  kneeling  soldier.  Below,  under  the  palm  tree,  sits 
Hecuba  facing  the  statue  of  Minerva  (a  Palladium)  behind  which  Helen  is 
seen  to  cower.  In  front  Cassandra  clings  to  the  statue,  while  Ajax,  striding 
over  the  body  of  her  dead  lover,  tries  to  drag  her  away  by  the  hair.  To 
the  left,  jEneas,  with  Anchises  in  his  arms,  and  little  Ascanius  are  hasten- 
ing away. 

167.  Orestes  and  Electra  at  the  Tomb  of  Agamemnon.    Greek  Vase  Paint- 

ing:  Baumeister ^,  ^939 3^5 

168.  Orestes  pursued  by  Furies.   Greek  Vase  Painting:  Baumeister 2,  ijij    316 

169.  Orestes  and  Pylades.  before  the  King  of  the  Tauri  (Iphigenia  as  a 

priestess  on  the  steps  of  the  temple).    Wall  Painting  from  Pompeii, 
Naples:  Springer,  Kunstgeschichte,  i,S2g 316 

170.  Ulysses  offering  the  Cyclops  Wine.    Ancient  Statuette  in  the  Vatican  : 

Banmeister  2,  12^1 318 

171.  Boring  out  the  Cyclops'  Eye.    From  an  Attic  Vase  :  F.  Gardner,  Gram- 

mar of  Greek  Art,  p.  22^ 322 

172.  Ulysses  and  Two  Companions  under  the  Rams.    Greek  Vase  Painting: 

Ilarrison-Maccoll,  Flate  XXIX 323 

173.  The  Castle  of  Circe.    Sicilian  Vase  Painting:  Baumeister 2,  S^g .    .    .    325 

174.  Ulysses  and  the  Sirens.    Greek  Vase  Painting  in  the  British  Museum: 

P.  Gardner,  Grammar  of  Greek  Art,  p.  227,  Fig.  78 329 

175.  Ulysses  and  Scylla.    Etruscan  Relief :  Baumeister  j,  lydz 330 

176.  Penelope  at  the  Loom,  and  Telemachus.    Greek  Vase  Painting  in  Mu- 

seum, Chiusi :  Harrison-Maccoll,  Flate  XLI 339 

177.  Ulysses  recognized  by  Euryclea  (behind  him  Eumasus).    Ancient  Terra 

Cotta  Relief:  Baumeister 2,  12^7 341 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  xxvii 

FIGURE  PAGE 

178,  179.  Ulysses  kills  the  Suitors.  Greek  Vase  Painting,  Berlin  :  Baumeister 

J.  2139 342,  343 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  suitors  are  defending  themselves. 

180.  The  Nike  (Victory)  of  Samothrace.    Greek  Statue  in  the  Louvre :   Von 

Mach,  Greek  Sculpture,  Plate  facing  p.  30 345 

181.  iEneas,  Anchises,  and  lulus.    Ancient  Gem,  Uffizi,  Florence     ....    347 

182.  Scylla  (carved  end  of  ancient  table).    Chefs-cT CEuvres  de  r Art  Antique, 

Paris,  1867 349 

183.  The  Cumaean  Sibyl.   Painting  by  Michelangelo  in  the  Vatican :  Photo- 

S>-'-^ph 353 

184.  Ixion   on  the  wheel.    Ancient  Vase   Painting,   Berlin:    Bau?neister  i. 

Fig.  821 358 

Below,  right :  Vulcan  looking  at  his  handiwork ;  a  Fury  and  Hermes. 
Above :  winged  forms,  perhaps  the  Hours,  to  see  that  the  motion  is  perpet- 
ual. One  is  even  now  shoving  the  wheel ;  the  other  has  just  taken  off  her 
hand  to  point  "  your  turn." 

185.  Amazon.    Ancient  Marble  Statue:   Guhl  and  Koner 364 

186.  Valkyrie  bearing  a  Hero  to  Valhalla.    Painting  by  Dielitz  :  Photograph.  375 

187.  Loki  and  Siguna.    Painting  by  Gebhardt :  Photograph 393 

188.  Gunther  and    Brunhild.    Fresco   by  Julius    Schnorr  von   Carolsfeld : 

Photograph 406 

189.  Siegfried  and   Kriemhild.    Fresco  by  Julius  Schnorr  von  Carolsfeld : 

Photograph 407 


FULL-PAGE   ILLUSTRATIONS  AND  MAPS 

PAGE 

Lemnian  Athena Frontispiece 

Statue,  possibly  after  Phidias,  reconstructed  by  Furtwangler  from  torso  in 
Dresden  and  head  in  Bologna :  Photograph. 

Hera  of  the  Vatican 22 

Ancient  Marble  in  the  Vatican:  Photograph. 

Venus  (Aphrodite)  of  Melos 32 

Greek  Marble  in  the  Louvre  :  Photograph. 

Greece  in  the  Fifth  Century  b.c 64 

The  Farnese  Bull  Group :  Amphion,  Zethus,  Dirce,  and  Antiope  ...     74 
Ancient  Marble  in  Naples :  E.  von  Mach,  Handbook,  Fig.  44. 

Apollo  and  Daphne 112 

Marble  Group  by  Bernini,  Villa  Borghese,  Rome  :   Photograph. 

Aphrodite  (Petworth  Head) 126 

Ancient  Marble  in  London  :  P'nrticdngler,  Masterpieces,  Plate  XVII. 

Eros  with  Bow *.   136 

Ancient  Marble  in  the  Capitoline  Museum:  Baumeister  i,  jjg. 

Hermes  of  Praxiteles 150 

Greek  Marble  in  Olympia :  Photograph. 

Perseus  freeing  Andromeda 212 

Ancient  Relief  in  the  Capitoline  Museum:  Roscher 2, 346. 
The  Wedding  of  Hercules  and  Hebe 226 

Ancient  Apulian  Vase  Painting  in  Berlin  :  Baiimeister  i,  yoo. 
Amazon 306 

Ancient  Marble  in  Lansdowne  House  :  Photograph. 
Laocoon 310 

Greek  Marble  in  the  Vatican  :  Photograph. 

The  Outer  Geography  of  the  Odyssey 318 

Flying  Mercury 330 

Statue  by  Giovanni  di  Bologna  in  Florence :  Photograph. 

Italy  before  the  Growth  of  the  Roman  Empire 346 

The  \'ictory  (Nike)  of  Brescia 372 

Ancient  Bronze  Status:  E.von  Mach,Greek  Sculpture, Plate XXXV.No. 4- 

xxviii 


INTRODUCTION 

THE  STUDY  OF  MYTHOLOGY  IN  CONNECTION  WITH  ENGLISH 
POETRY  AND  WITH  ART 

Our  American  educational  methods  too  frequently  seek  to  pro- 
duce the  effect  of  polish  upon  a  kind  of  sandstone  information  that 
will  not  stand  polishing.  With  such  fatuity  many  of  our  teachers 
in  the  secondary  schools  exercise  their  pupils  in  the  study  of  Eng- 
lish masterpieces  and  in  the  critical  estimate  of  aesthetic  qualities 
before  acquainting  them  with  the  commonplace  facts  and  fables 
that,  transmitted  through  generations,  are  the  material  of  much  of 
our  poetry  because  the  material  of  daily  converse,  imagination,  and 
thought.  These  commonplaces  of  tradition  are  to  be  found  largely 
in  the  literature  of  mythology.  Of  course  the  evil  would  be  neither 
so  widespread  nor  so  dangerous  if  more  of  the  guardians  and 
instructors  of  our  youth  were  at  home  even  among  the  Greek  and 
Latin  classics.  But  for  various  reasons,  —  some  valid,  as,  for  in- 
stance, the  importance  of  increased  attention  to  the  modern  lan- 
guages and  the  natural  sciences  ;  others  worthless,  as  the  so-called 
utilitarian  protest  against  the  cultivation  of  "dead"  languages, — 
for  various  reasons  the  study  of  the  classics  is  at  present  consid- 
erably impaired.  It  is,  therefore,  incumbent  upon  our  universities 
and  schools,  recognizing  this  fact  and  deploring  it,  to  abate  so  far 
as  possible  the  unfortunate  consequences  that  proceed  therefrom, 
until,  by  a  readjustment  of  subjects  of  instruction  and  of  the  periods 
allotted  them,  the  Greek  and  Latin  classics  shall  be  reinstated  in 
their  proper  place  as  a  means  of  discipline,  a  humanizing  influence, 
the  historic  background  against  which  our  present  appears.  For, 
cut  off  from  the  intellectual  and  imaginative  sources  of  Greece  and 
Rome,  the  state  and  statesmanship,  legislation  and  law,  society 
and  manners,  philosophy,  religion,  literature,  art,  and  even  artistic 
appreciation,  run  readily  shallow  and  soon  dry. 


XXX  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Now,  one  evident  means  of  tempering  the  consequence  of  this 
neglect  of  the  classics  is  the  study  of  them  through  translations 
and  summaries.  Such  secondhand  study  must  indeed  be  ever  a 
makeshift ;  for  the  literature  of  a  people  inheres  in  its  language, 
and  loses  its  seeming  and  often  its  characteristic  when  capari- 
soned in  the  trappings  of  another  speech,  —  an  utterance  totally 
dissimilar,  the  outcome  of  diverse  conditions  of  physical  environ- 
ment, history,  social  and  intellectual  tradition.  But  in  dealing  with 
the  purely  imaginative  products  of  antiquity,  the  inefficacy  of  trans- 
lation may  be  somewhat  offset  if  those  products  be  reproduced,  so 
far  as  possible,  not  in  the  prosaic  but  in  the  poetic  atmosphere 
and  in  the  imaginative  garb  of  art.  For  though  the  phenomena  of 
plastic  art  are  not  the  same  in  one  continent  as  in  another,  or  from 
one  century  to  the  next,  and  though  the  fashion  of  poetry  itself 
varies  from  age  to  age  and  from  clime  to  clime,  the  genesis  of 
imagination  is  universal,  its  products  are  akin,  and  its  process  is 
continuous.  For  this  reason  the  study  of  the  imaginative  thought 
of  the  ancients  through  the  artistic  creations  of  the  moderns  is 
commended  to  students  and  readers  as  feasible  and  profitable. 

The  study  of  the  classic  myths  stimulates  to  creative  produc- 
tion, prepares  for  the  appreciation  of  poetry  and  other  kinds  of 
art,  and  furnishes  a  clew  to  the  spiritual  development  of  the 
race. 

1.  Classic  mythology  has  been  for  succeeding  poetry,  sculpture, 
and  painting,  a  treasure  house  replete  with  golden  tales  and  glim- 
mering thoughts,  passions  in  the  rough  and  smooth,  and  fancies 
rich  bejeweled.  Like  Virgil's  Shadows  that  flit  by  the  Lethean 
stream  until  at  beck  of  Fate  they  revisit  upper  day  and  the  ever- 
tranquil  stars,  these  ghosts  of  "  far-off  things  and  battles  long  ago," 
peopling  the  murmurous  glades  of  myth,  await  the  artist  who  shall 
bestow  on  each  his  new  and  predetermined  form  and  restore  them, 
purified  and  breathing  of  Elysian  air,  to  the  world  of  life  and  ever- 
young  mankind. 

2.  For  the  reader  the  study  of  mythology  does,  in  this  respect, 
as  much  as  for  poet,  sculptor,  or  painter.  It  assists  him  to  thrid  the 
labyrinth  of  art,  not  merely  with  the  clew  of  tradition,  but  with  a 
thread  of  surer  knowledge  whose  surest  strand  is  sympathy. 


INTRODUCTION  xxxi 

The  knowledge  of  mythic  lore  has  led  men  in  the  past  broadly 
to  appreciate  the  motives  and  conditions  of  ancient  art  and  litera- 
ture, and  the  uniform  and  ordered  evolution  of  the  aesthetic  sense. 
And,  beside  enriching  us  with  heirlooms  of  fiction  and  pointing 
us  to  the  sources  of  imaginative  joy  from  which  early  poets  of 
Hellenic  verse,  or  Norse,  or  English,  drank,  the  classic  myths 
quicken  the  imaginative  and  emotional  faculties  to-day,  just  as  of 
old.  How  many  a  man  held  by  the  sorrows  of  the  Labdacidae  or 
the  love  of  Alcestis,  by  some  curious  wonder  in  Pausanias,  or  some 
woe  in  Hyginus,  has  waked  to  the  consciousness  of  artistic  fancy 
and  creative  force  within  himself  !  How  many,  indifferent  to  the 
well-known  round,  the  trivial  task,  the  nearest  care  of  home,  have 
read  the  Farewell  to  Andromache  and  lived  a  new  sympathy,  an 
unselfish  thrill,  a  purified  delight !  And  not  only  as  an  impulse 
toward  artistic  output,  or  patriotic  devotion,  or  domestic  altruism, 
but  as  a  restraining  influence,  a  chastener  of  aesthetic  excess,  a 
moderator  of  the  "unchartered  freedom"  that  knows  no  mean 
between  idolatry  and  loathing,  of  the  foolish  frenzy  that  affects 
new  things,  abnormal  and  sensational,  in  literature,  music,  and  the 
plastic  arts,  —  as  such  a  tutor  and  governor  is  the  study  of  beauti- 
ful myths  invaluable.  Long  familiarity  with  the  sweet  simplicity, 
the  orderly  restraint,  the  severe  regard,  the  filial  awe  that  pervade 
the  myths  of  Greece  and  Rome,  —  or  with  the  newness  of  life  and 
fullness  and  wonder  of  it,  the  nai'vet^  and  the  romance,  of  Eddie 
lore,  —  cannot  but  graciously  temper  our  modern  estimate  of  artistic 
worth. 

The  study,  when  illustrated  by  masterpieces  of  literature  and  art, 
should  lead  to  the  appreciation  of  concrete  artistic  productions  of 
both  these  kinds. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  a  rational  series  of  somewhat  con- 
secutive stories  is  more  serviceable  to  the  reader  than  a  congeries  of 
data  acquired  by  spasmodic  consultation  of  the  classical  dictionary, 
— a  mass  of  information  bolted,  as  it  were,  but  by  no  means  digested. 
If,  moreover,  these  stories  are  narrated  in  genealogical  and  real- 
istic sequence  and  are  illustrated  by  lyric,  narrative,  and  descrip- 
tive passages  of  modern  literature,  there  is  furnished  not  only  that 
material  of  allusion  and  reference  for  which  the  student  nowadays 


xxxii  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

trusts  to  meager  and  disjointed  textbook  notes,  but  a  potentiality 
that  should  render  the  general  reading  of  belles-lettres  more  profit- 
able. For  a  previous  acquaintance  with  the  material  of  literary 
tradition  heightens  the  appreciation  of  each  allusive  passage  as  it 
is  encountered  ;  it  enables  the  reader  to  sympathize  with  the  mood 
and  to  enter  into  the  purpose  of  the  poet,  the  essayist,  the  novelist, 
the  orator ;  it  expands  the  intellectual  lungs  for  the  atmosphere 
breathed  by  the  artist,  at  any  rate  for  a  literary  and  social  atmos- 
phere less  asthmatic  than  that  to  which  so  many  of  us  are  uncon- 
sciously habituated.  Of  course  all  this  advantage  would  far  better 
result  from  the  first-hand  nutriment  and  discipline  of  the  Greek 
and  Latin  classics  ;  of  course  direct  familiarity  with  the  writers  of 
Greece  and  Rome  is  the  sine  gjta  non  of  level-headed  criticism  and 
broad  evaluation  of  modern  literature  ;  and,  of  course,  a  sympathy 
with  the  imaginings  of  old  is  the  best  incentive  to  an  aesthetic  esti- 
mate not  only  of  art  but  of  nature  to-day ;  but  if  our  American 
pupils  and  many  of  their  teachers  cannot  quaff  Massic  and  Faler- 
nian,  they  do  well  to  scent  the  bouquet.  In  time  a  sense  of  flavor 
may  perchance  be  stimulated,  and  ultimately  a  desire  for  nearer 
acquaintance  with  the  literatures  that  we  inherit. 

The  study  of  these  ancient  tales  serves,  then,  much  more  than 
the  purpose  of  special  information.  It  refines  the  aesthetic  judg- 
ment in  general,  and  heightens  the  enjoyment  of  such  works  of 
literature  as,  not  treating  of  mythical  or  classical  subjects,  still  pos- 
sess the  characteristics  of  the  classic  :  the  unconscious  simplicity, 
the  inevitable  charm,  and  the  noble  ideality.  The  Lycidas,  the 
Adonais,  the  Thyrsis,  the  In  Memoriam,  the  Ode  to  Duty,  the 
Bothie  of  Tober-na-Vuolich,  the  Hymn  of  Man,  Love  is  Enough, 
Prospice,  Festus,  the  Ode  of  Life,  the  Dream  of  Gerontius,  Lying 
in  the  Grass,  and  Simmenthal  must  mean  little  to  one  devoid  of 
the  spirit  of  classicism. 

In  respect  of  art  a  similar  inspiration,  aid,  instruction,  are  afforded 
by  the  study.  This  volume  is  liberally  supplied  with  cuts  of  famous 
paintings  and  sculptures  of  mythical  subjects.  Familiarity  with 
specimens  of  ancient  art,  even  through  the  medium  of  photogra- 
phy and  engraving,  must  not  only  cultivate  the  historic  sense  but 
stimulate  the  aesthetic.    The  cruder  efforts  of  the  ancients,  no  less 


INTRODUCTION  xxxiii 

than  the  more  refined,  are  windows  through  which  we  view  the 
ancient  mind.  The  frequent  contemplation  of  their  nobler  efforts 
and  of  the  modern  masterpieces  here  reproduced  may  avail  to  lift 
some  from  the  level  of  apathy  or  provinciality  in  matters  of  imagi- 
nation ;  some  it  may  spur  to  a  study  of  the  originals,  some  to 
artistic  creation.  A  public  which,  from  year  to  year,  displays  a 
deeper  interest  in  the  art  of  foreign  lands  will  despise  no  auxiliary 
to  a  more  intelligent  appreciation  of  that  art.  A  country  whose 
future  in  artistic  achievement  cannot  be  prophesied  in  a  paragraph 
will  more  and  more  truly  recognize  the  value  of  a  study  that  is  an 
introduction  to  much  that  is  best  in  art  as  it  exists. 

3.  Furthermore,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  myths  of  the 
ancients,  as  the  earliest  literary  crystallization  of  social  order  and 
religious  fear,  record  the  incipient  history  of  religious  ideals  and  of 
moral  conduct.  For  though  ethnologists  may  insist  that  to  search 
for  truth  m  mythology  is  vain,  the  best  of  them  will  grant  that  to 
search  for  truth  through  mythology  is  wise  and  profitable.  If  we 
accept  the  statement  (often  stretched  beyond  its  proper  limit)  that 
mythology  is  primitive  philosophy,  and  the  other  statement  that  an 
ancient  philosophy  never  dies,  but  by  process  of  internal  growth, 
of  modification,  and  of  accretion  acquires  a  purer  spirit  and  a  new 
and  higher  form,  —  then,  since  truth  was  never  yet  conceived  of 
error  {ex  niJiilo  nihil  Jit),  the  truth  now  recognized,  while  it  did 
not  exist  in, that  fraction  of  myth  which  happens  to  be  irrational, 
existed  as  an  archetypal  impulse,  —  set  the  myth  in  motion,  and,  as 
a  process  refining  the  mind  of  man,  tended  steadily  to  eliminate 
from  primitive  philosophy  (that  is,  from  the  myths  that  embodied 
primitive  philosophy)  the  savage,  ephemeral,  and  irrational  ele- 
ment. For  all  myths  spring  from  the  universal  and  inalienable 
desire  to  know,  to  enjoy,  to  teach.  These  impulses  of  knowledge, 
of  imaginative  relaxation,  of  conduct,  are  the  throbbing  of  the 
heart  of  reason  ;  the  first  or  the  second  is  the  primal  pulse  of  ever}' 
myth,  and  to  the  life  of  every  myth  each  impulse  may  be,  at  some 
period,  contributory.  This  study  has  led  men  to  trace  soberly  the 
progress  of  their  kind  from  the  t^vilight  of  gray  conjecture  to  the 
dawn  of  spiritual  conviction  and  rational  individuality  ;  to  discern  a 
continuity  of  thought,  an  outward  reach  of  imagination,  an  upward 


xxxiv  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

lift  of  moral  and  religious  ideas ;  to  confess  the  brotherhood  of 
humanity  and  an  inspiring  purpose  which  holds  good  for  every 
race  and  through  all  time. 

SUGGESTIONS  TO  TEACHERS 

I .  Of  the  Classic  Myths  in  their  Relation  to  Literature.  It  is 
essential  that  the  teacher  of  mythology,  no  matter  what  textbook 
or  system  he  uses  or  what  classic  epic  he  proposes  to  present, 
should  first  make  himself  acquainted  with  the  meaning  of  myth, 
its  origin  and  elements;  the  difference  between  myth  and  fable, 
between  myths  explanatory  and  myths  aesthetic,  myths  reasonable 
and  myths  unreasonable,  the  theories  of  myth-making  as  a  process 
of  deterioration  or  as  a  process  of  development.  He  should  also 
inform  himself  concerning  the  ways  in  which  the  leading  myths 
have  been  disseminated,  and  how  the  survivors  have  been  pre- 
served. Materials  for  this  preparation  he  will  find  in  Chapters 
XXX-XXXII  of  this  book  as  readily,  perhaps,  as  elsewhere; 
but  no  matter  where  he  obtains  this  information  he  should  in  a 
simple  and  interesting  talk  pass  on  the  cream  of  it  to  the  pupils 
about  to  begin  the  study  of  the  stories  themselves.  He  will  in  that 
way  bring  them  to  a  reasonable  appreciation  of  the  value  of  myths 
and  their  relation  to  our  civilization,  and  awaken  in  them  antici- 
patory interest  in  the  proposed  reading.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to 
plunge  students  of  high-school  age,  without  preliminary  orienta- 
tion and  a  justification  of  the  study,  into  a  world  which  may  other- 
wise appear  to  them  unreasonable  in  conception  and  unrelated  in 
experience.  Pupils  may,  if  time  permits,  read  these  concluding 
chapters,  and  so  obtain  a  systematic  outlook  upon  the  subject, 
during  a  brief  review  in  the  senior  year,  but  not  earlier. 

This  book  should  be  studied  for  its  materials  and  the  inspiration 
that  it  affords,  —  not  word  by  word  for  its  style,  or  as  a  dictionary 
or  scientific  authority  ;  nor  paragraph  by  paragraph  with  a  painful 
committing  to  memory  of  each  myth  and  each  episode  in  the  myth. 
Discrimination  must  be  made.  Some  of  these  myths,  and  espe- 
cially the  episodes  from  the  epics  (Chapters  XXII-XXIX),  are 
to  be  read  rapidly  and  in  large  assignments,  sometimes  at  home 


INTRODUCTION  xxxv 

with  reports  in  class,  sometimes  in  class  and  at  sight,  but  always 
for  the  enjoyment.  Others  are  to  be  studied  in  detail,  but  solely 
when  they  are  of  special  and  vital  significance,  historically,  morally, 
or  aesthetically.  Emphasis  should  be  laid  only  occasionally  and 
sparingly  upon  interpretations  of  mythical  materials.  What  both 
teacher  and  student  should  aim  at  is  the  picture — manners,  morals, 
ideals,  heroic  figures,  epic  events,  broad  and  vivid  against  the  can- 
vas of  antiquity  :  that,  and  the  reality  of  classic  order,  grandeur, 
and  restraint. 

The  myths  are  here  presented  in  a  logical  and  genealogical 
arrangement ;  and  they  should  be  studied  in  this  order,  so  that  the 
pupil  may  carry  away,  not  a  jumble  of  sporadic  recollections,  but 
some  conception  of  the  systems  of  creative  imagination  which 
obtained  in  earlier  civilizations.  The  knowledge  of  the  myths  and 
the  proper  perspective  of  their  relation,  one  to  another,  may  fur- 
ther be  fixed  by  the  study  of  the  family  ties  that  motivate  many 
of  the  incidents  of  mythical  adventure,  and  that  must  have  been 
commonplaces  of  information  to  the  inventors  and  narrators  of 
these  stories. 

The  myths  may  well  be  reproduced  as  exercises  in  narration, 
comparison,  description  ;  and  they  may  be  regarded  as  stimulus 
for  imaginative  invention  concerning  local  wonders  and  beauties 
of  nature.  Pupils  may  also  be  encouraged  to  consider,  and  to 
comment  upon,  the  moral  qualities  of  the  heroes  and  heroines  of 
mythology.  Thus  they  may  be  led  to  recognize  the  difference 
between  ancient  and  modern  standards  of  right  and  wrong.  To 
this  end,  and  for  the  supply  of  further  nutriment,  it  is  important 
that  teachers  collect  from  their  reading  of  the  classic  originals,  or 
from  translations  of  the  Iliad,  the  Odyssey,  the  Greek  dramatists, 
the  yEneid,  the  Metamorphoses,  etc.,  material  supplementary  to 
the  text,  and  give  it  freely  to  their  classes.  To  facilitate  this  prac- 
tice the  sources  of  the  myths  have  been  indicated  in  the  footnotes 
of  this  volume,  and  a  few  of  the  best  translations  have  been  men- 
tioned in  the  Commentary.  Instructors  should  also  read  to  the 
classes  illustrative  English  poems,  or  portions  of  them  based  upon 
the  myths  under  consideration  ;  and  they  should  encourage  the 
pupils  to  collect  from'  their  English  reading  additional  examples 


XXX vi  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

of  the  literary  survival  or  adaptation  of  ancient  story.  For  this  pur- 
pose special  sections  of  the  Commentary  have  been  prepared,  indi- 
cating some  of  the  best  known  literary  applications  of  each  myth. 

The  Commentary  is  numbered  in  sections  corresponding  to  those 
of  the  text.  The  Textual  Notes  should  be  studied  in  connection 
with  each  lesson,  the  Interpretative  more  sparingly,  as  I  have  said. 
They  should  not  be  suffered  to  spoil  the  interest  in  the  stories  as 
such.  They  are  of  interest  in  themselves  only  to  maturer  minds. 
Allusions  and  interpretations  which  the  younger  pupil  does  not 
appreciate  will,  if  the  book  is  used  for  purposes  of  reference  in  his 
further  English,  Latin,  or  Greek  studies,  be  clear  before  the  end 
of  his  course. 

From  the  outset  care  should  be  taken  that  pupils  give  to  the 
classical  names  their  proper  accent,  and  that  they  anglicize  both 
vowels  and  consonants  according  to  the  recognized  rules  laid  down 
in  the  Latin  grammars,  the  English  dictionaries,  and  the  pages 
preceding  the  Index  of  this  book. 

Mythological  and  classical  geography  should  not  be  neglected. 
The  maps  accompanying  this  volume  will  be  serviceable  ;  but  there 
should  be  in  the  classroom  one  of  Kiepert's  maps  of  the  World 
as  Known  to  the  Ancients  (Orbis  Veteribus  Notus),  or  maps  of 
Ancient  Italy,  Greece,  and  Asia  Minor.  The  teacher  will  find  the 
International  Atlas  (G,  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  New  York),  A.  Keith 
Johnston's  School  and  College  Atlas  of  Ancient  Geography,  or  the 
new  edition  of  the  same  by  James  Cranstoun,  issued  as  Ginn  and 
Company's  Classical  Atlas,  indispensable  in  the  prosecution  of 
general  reading. 

When  it  is  the  intention  to  study,  in  connection  with  the  book, 
an  Homeric  epic  or  a  portion  of  it,  the  teacher  should  first  make 
sure  that  the  class  has  an  adequate  preliminary  training  in  general 
mythology  (such,  for  instance,  as  may  be  provided  by  the  first 
twenty-one  chapters);  he  should  then  outline  rapidly  and  enter- 
tainingly the  epic  as  a  whole,  emphasizing  its  position  in  the  lit- 
erature of  the  world  and  its  relation  to  the  world  of  its  own  times, 
before  proceeding  to  read  it  in  detail  with  the  class.  Excellent 
suggestions  as  to  this  method  of  study  are  offered  in  the  Intro- 
duction to  Maxwell  &  Chubb's  Pope's  Homer's  Iliad,  Books  I,  VI, 


INTRODUCTION  xxxvii 

XXII,  and  XXIV  (Longmans),  and  in  the  Introduction  to  the 
Riverside  Edition  of  the  Odyssey  :  Ulysses  among  the  Phaeacians 
(Houghton  Mifflin  Company). 

The  more  important  myths  and  the  best  illustrative  poems  should 
provide  not  only  nutriment  for  thought,  but  material  for  memor)^ 
Our  youth  in  the  push  for  hasty  achievement  bolt  their  meals  ;  they 
masticate  little,  swallow  everything,  digest  nothing,  —  and  having 
agonized,  forget.  If  fewer  things  were  dispatched,  especially  in  the 
study  of  literature,  and  if  more  were  intrusted  to  the  memory, 
there  would  be  something  to  assimilate  and  time  to  assimilate 
it ;  there  would  be  less  dyspepsia  and  more  muscle.  Teachers  and 
parents  are  overconsiderate,  nowadays,  of  the  memory  in  children  : 
they  approach  it  gingerly  ;  they  have  feared  so  much  to  wring  its 
withers  that  in  most  children  the  memory  has  grown  too  soft  for 
saddling.  In  our  apprehension  lest  pupils  may  turn  out  parrots,  we 
have  too  often  turned  them  out  loons.  It  is  better  that  a  few  of 
the  facts  in  their  heads  be  wrong  than  that  no  facts  be  there  at 
all.  With  all  our  study  of  children  and  our  gabble  about  methods 
of  teaching  them,  while  we  insist,  properly  enough,  that  youth  is 
the  seedtime  of  observation,  we  seem  to  have  forgotten  that  it  is 
also  the  harvest-time  of  memory.  It  is  easy  for  children  to  remem- 
ber what  they  learn,  it  is  a  delight  for  them  to  commit  to  memory ; 
we  act  criminally  when  we  send  them  forth  with  hardly  a  fact  or  a 
date  or  a  glorious  verse  in  the  memory  of  one  out  of  ten  of  them. 
Such,  unfortunately,  is  the  case  in  many  of  our  schools  ;  and  such 
was  not  the  case  in  the  day  of  our  fathers.  Pupils  should  be 
encouraged  to  recite  memoriter  the  best  poems  and  verses  that 
accompany  the  myths  here  given  ;  and  they  should  not  be  allowed 
to  pass  allusions  already  explained  without  recalling  verses  that 
contain  them. 

But  above  all  things  should  be  cultivated,  by  means  of  this  study, 
the  spiritual  capabilities  of  our  youth.  Pabulum  for  thought,  accu- 
rate habits  of  memory,  critical  judgment,  simplicity  and  directness 
of  oral  and  written  expression,  may  all  be  furnished  or  developed  by 
other  educative  agencies  ;  but  what  stimulus  to  fancy,  to  poetic  sen- 
sitiveness and  reflection,  to  a  near  kinship  with  the  spirit  of  nature 
humanized,  can  be  found  more  cogent  than  the  contemplation  of 


xxxviii  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

the  poetic  traditions  that  abide  in  verse  ?  Mythology,  fraught  with 
the  fire  of  imagination,  kindles  the  present  from  the  past. 

In  this  new  world  of  ours,  shall  slopes  and  mountains,  gorges, 
canons,  flowery  fields  and  forests,  rivers,  bays.  Titanic  lakes,  and 
shoreless  reach  of  ocean  be  seen  of  eyes  that  lack  insight,  be  known 
of  men  for  whom  nature  does  not  live  ?  Surely  the  age  of  myth  is 
not  wholly  past ;  surely  the  beauties  and  the  wonders  of  nature  are 
a  fable  of  things  never  fully  revealed  ;  surely  this  new  republic  of 
ours,  no  less  than  her  prototypes  by  Tyrrhenian  and  yEgean  seas, 
utters,  in  her  queenly  form  and  flowing  robes,  a  spirit,  a  truth,  a 
potential  poetry,  and  a  beauty  of  art,  the  grace  of  which  we  Ameri- 
cans, with  deeper  imaginative  training  and  sympathy  and  awe,  may 
yet  more  highly  value  and  more  clearly  comprehend. 

2.  Of  the  Classic  Myths  in  their  Relation  to  Art}  The  illustra- 
tion of  a  book  on  ancient  mythology  offers  great  difficulties,  because 
the  modern  reader  expects  one  thing  and  the  ancient  artist,  on  whose 
works  one  must  rely,  intentionally  offers  a  very  different  thing.  We 
have  grown  to  be  a  reading  people,  forming  our  ideas  largely  on 
the  written  word,  while  in  antiquity  the  spoken  word  opened  the 
door  to  understanding.  A  story  which  has  been  committed  to  writ- 
ing is  fixed  for  all  time,  having  lost  its  power  of  growth  ;  whereas 
a  tale  that  passes  from  mouth  to  mouth,  with  no  record  by  which 
to  check  its  accuracy  in  particulars,  is  free  to  expand.  It  changes 
with  the  moods  of  those  who  tell  it,  and  the  intellectual  and  moral 
standards  of  those  who  listen.  People  to-day  are  unimaginative  and 
literal.  They  also  expect  that  the  pictures  which  illustrate  their 
books  shall  follow  the  individual  conceptions  of  the  author  closely. 
When  the  story  is  dramatized  a  certain  latitude  is  granted  to  the 
actor ;  the  artist,  however,  who  illustrates  the  book  has  no  such 
freedom.  He  is  expected  to  take  precisely  the  author's  view  of  a 
fictitious  character,  and,  consequently,  his  individuality  may  show 
itself  only  in  the  technique.  In  antiquity  there  were  no  standard 
books  of  fiction  or  of  myths.  When  writing  came  into  use  with  the 
sixth  century  before  Christ,  the  individual  versions  of  this  or  that 
great  epic  poem  or  drama  were  preserved  ;  but  the  great  mass  of 
the  people  knew  them,  not  because  they  h^d  read  the  manuscripts, 

1  See  Preface. 


INTRODUCTION  xxxix 

but  because  they  had  heard  them  acted  or  recited.  Book  illustra- 
tions, therefore,  were  unknown.  Yet  so  powerful  was  the  impres- 
sion which  the  myths  made  on  the  people  that  most  of  the  artists 
drew  their  inspiration  from  them.  Artists  and  poets  alike  wished 
to  make  real  the  powerful  characters  of  Greek  tradition.  To  make 
a  literally  true  illustration  of  any  one  version  of  a  great  myth  was 
not  the  aim  of  a  classic  artist. 

Another  difficulty  is  found  in  the  fact  that  few  ancient  myths 
continued  to  be  equally  interesting  to  the  people  all  the  time.  It  is 
therefore  necessary  for  us,  in  choosing  illustrations,  to  draw  on  all 
periods  of  ancient  art,  the  crude  beginning  and  the  decline  as  well 
as  the  brief  span  of  fine  art.  The  comparatively  meager  store  of 
genuinely  classic  works  of  art  acts  as  one  of  the  greatest  obstacles 
to  the  compilation  of  a  continuous  record  of  classic  myths  in  classic 
art.  To  give  such  a  record,  however,  rather  than  to  ilhistrate  his 
book,  must  be  the  aim  of  the  author  who  publishes  to-day  a  version 
of  ancient  mythology  together  with  such  pictures  or  reliefs  or  statues 
as  are  preserved.  The  modern  reader  of  such  a  book  should  there- 
fore appreciate  this  fact :  he  must  make  allowance  for  the  gradual 
development  of  ancient  art.  The  picture  is  not  there  for  the  sake 
of  strengthening  the  written  work,  but  for  its  own  sake.  It  often 
offers  an  independent  version  of  the  myth  which  he  reads,  and  at 
all  times  may  give  him  an  insight  into  the  mental  make-up  of  the 
classic  people. 

Sculpture  was  the  finest  art  of  the  Greeks,  if  one  may  judge  by 
the  remains.  In  this  province  the  artists  worked  according  to  the 
best  principles  of  art,  making  their  appeal  directly  to  the  nobler 
side  of  man.  Before  an  ancient  statue  one  feels  the  power  of  an 
idea  immediately,  and  not  by  the  circuitous  route  of  remembering 
a  sequence  of  words  which  may  have  aimed  to  suggest  a  similar 
idea.  The  Greeks  were  the  least  literal  in  their  sculpture.  Their 
marbles,  therefore,  cannot  yield  illustrations  which  the  modern 
editor  can  use,  except  when  they  embody,  like  the  Demeter  of 
Knidos  (Fig.  29)  or  the  Athena  of  Velletri  (Fig.  10),  a  well-defined 
character-conception.  The  modern  reader,  on  the  other  hand,  can- 
not fail  to  notice  that  ^this  conception  never  does  justice  to  the 
character  of  the  goddess  as  it  appears  in  all  the  myths,  and  very 


xl  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

rarely  even  to  that  characteristic  which  may  dominate  the  particular 
version  of  any  one  myth.  If  such  pictures,  however,  were  entirely 
omitted  from  the  book,  the  best  means  of  appreciating  the  essential 
nobility  of  the  Greek  mind  would  be  lost. 

None  of  the  Greek  masterpieces  of  painting  are  extant.  Their 
attenuated  influence,  however,  may  be  traced  in  the  Italian  wall 
paintings  from  Pompeii  and  elsewhere.  Painting  permits  greater 
literalness  than  sculpture.  The  picture  from  Herculaneum,  for 
instance, — ^  lo,  Argus,  and  Mercury  (Fig.  47), — tells  a  definite 
story  and  one  which  is  also  told  by  the  poets.  But  the  painter 
has  considered  the  making  of  a  pleasing  picture  first,  and  given 
only  a  secondary  thought  to  accuracy  of  tradition.  This  must  be 
so  ;  for  while  we  may  without  displeasure  listen  to  the  descrip- 
tion of  a  monster,  we  cannot  see  his  actual  representation  without 
discomfort.  When  we  hear  how  the  companions  of  Ulysses  were 
turned  into  swine,  the  tragic  note  is  never  lost.  To  paint  this  scene, 
however,  and  not  to  border  on  the  ridiculous  or  the  burlesque  is 
given  only  to  the  greatest  artist  —  if  it  is  at  all  possible. 

Fortunately  for  our  purposes  of  illustration,  there  was  a  class  of 
secondary  artists  in  Greece  which  did  not  always  shrink  from  select- 
ing subjects  ill  adapted  for  art,  and  from  rendering  them  with 
slight  variations  so  that  they  are  neither  bad  to  look  at  nor  altogether 
untrue.  These  were  the  painters  of  vases.  Some  of  them  were 
masters  of  their  craft  (cf.  Fig.  1 16),  others  were  of  only  mediocre 
skill.  All,  however,  like  their  nobler  brethren,  were  primarily  con- 
cerned with  the  decorative  and  technical  side  of  their  art  and  but 
secondarily  with  their  subject.  If  the  story,  for  instance,  called  for 
four  persons  and  their  space  for  five,  they  unhesitatingly  added  the 
fifth  person,  and,  vice  versa,  removed  one  without  compunction  if 
they  had  place  for  fewer  figures  than  the  story  demanded.  Being, 
moreover,  commercial  people,  they  painted  according  to  fashion. 
Whatever  version  of  a  myth  happened  to  be  popular,  that  they 
selected,  so  that  it  has  been  possible  to  trace  by  their  vases  the 
changes  which  several  myths  underwent  from  the  sixth  century 
onward. 

A  careful  student  notices  the  similarity  of  types  in  many  of  these 
pictures  and  realizes  that  the  ancient  painter  of  vases  started  out 


INTRODUCTION  xli 

with  a  certain  stock-in-trade  which  he  altered  as  httle  as  possible, 
adding  something  new  only  where  it  was  absolutely  necessary. 

From  these  observations  it  is  clear  that  the  works  of  men  who 
were  least  gifted  artistically  are  the  best  adapted  for  the  purposes 
of  book  illustrations  ;  for  a  painter  is  literal  in  the  inverse  ratio  of 
his  worth  as  artist.  Nothing,  therefore,  could  be  less  fair  than  to 
judge  Greek  vase  painting  by  the  collection  of  pictures  here  offered. 
Only  paintings  like  Figures  85  and  loi,  for  instance,  can  give  a 
hint  of  the  best  that  these  men  produced. 

Going  gradually  down  the  scale  of  artists  one  finally  comes  to 
the  level  of  the  makers  of  Roman  sarcophagi,  in  whose  honor  it  can 
only  be  said  that  to  descend  lower  is  impossible.  Several  myths, 
however,  —  the  story  of  the  fall  of  Phaethon  (Fig.  59),  for  instance, 
—  are  not  illustrated  in  art  before  the  decadent  period  of  imperial 
Roman  sculpture.  It  is  therefore  necessary  to  draw  also  upon  this 
source. 

Of  course  unity  of  art  or  school  or  excellence  cannot  be  pre- 
served in  a  set  of  pictures  which  groups  the  Demeter  of  Knidos 
(Fig.  29),  the  blinding  of  Polyphemus  (Fig.  171),  and  the  fall  of 
Phaethon  (Fig.  59).  But  individually  the  pictures  help  to  fix  in 
memory  the  particular  stories  that  they  are  chosen  to  illustrate  ; 
and  collectively  they  show  how  strongly  the  myths  here  retold  in- 
fluenced the  noblest  fancy  of  the  great  artists  as  well  as  the  recep- 
tive minds  of  mediocre  artisans.  The  suggestive  power  of  classic 
myths,  moreover,  was  not  confined  to  antiquity.  When  learning  and 
culture  returned  to  the  world  in  the  Renaissance,  this  power  also 
returned.  Raphael  (see  Fig.  12)  and  Michelangelo  (see  Fig.  183) 
were  under  its  sway,  and  so  are  many  modern  artists  (see  Figs.  72 
and  154)-  They  did  not  all  understand  the  classic  spirit  equally, 
therefore  some  of  their  pictures  are  modern  in  everything  save  the 
title,  while  others  have  caught  the  truth  with  singular  accuracy  and 
are  modern  only  in  technique.  Adding  these  Italian  and  more  recent 
pictures  to  the  collection  further  destroys  mere  unity,  but  it  insures, 
on  the  other  hand,  a  full  appreciation  of  the  abiding  and  ennobling 
power  of  ancient  mythology. 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

PART  I 

MYTHS  OF   DIVINITIES  AND  HEROES 

CHAPTER  I 

GREEK  MYTHS  OF  THE  CREATION 

1.  Purpose  of  the  Study.  Interwoven  with  the  fabric  of  oui 
Enghsh  hterature,  of  our  epics,  dramas,  lyrics,  and  novels,  of  our 
essays  and  orations,  like  a  golden  warp  where  the  woof  is  only  too 
often  of  silver,  are  the  myths  of  certain  ancient  nations.  It  is  the 
purpose  of  this  work  to  relate  some  of  these  myths,  and  to  illus- 
trate the  uses  to  which  they  have  been  put  in  English  literature, 
and,  incidentally,  in  art. 

2.  The  Fable  and  the  Myth.  Careful  discrimination  must  be 
made  between  the  fable  and  the  myth.  A  fable  is  a  stoiy,  like  that 
of  King  Log,  or  the  Fox  and  the  Grapes,  in  which  characters  and 
plot,  neither  pretending  to  reality  nor  demanding  credence,  are 
fabricated  confessedly  as  the  vehicle  of  moral  or  didactic  instruc- 
tion. Dr.  Johnson  narrows  still  further  the  scope  of  the  fable  : 
"  It  seems  to  be,  in  its  genuine  state,  a  narrative  in  which  beings 
irrational,  and  sometimes  inanimate,  are,  for  the  purpose  of  moral 
instruction,  feigned  to  act  and  speak  with  human  interests  and 
passions."  Myths,  on  the  other  hand,  are  stories  of  anonymous 
origin,  prevalent  among  primitive  peoples  and  by  them  accepted 
as  true,  concerning  supernatural  beings  and  events,  or  natural 
beings  and  events  influenced  by  supernatural  agencies.  Fables  are 
made  by  individuals ;  they  may  be  told  in  any  stage  of  a  nation's 
history,  —  by  a  Jotham  when  the  Israelites  were  still  under  the 
Judges,   1 200  years  before  Christ,  or  by  Christ  himself  in  the 


2  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

days  of  the  most  critical  Jewish  scholarship;  by  a  Menenius 
when  Rome  was  still  involved  in  petty  squabbles  of  plebeians  and 
patricians,  or  by  Phaedrus  and  Horace  in  the  Augustan  age  of 
Roman  imperialism  and  Roman  letters  ;  by  an  ^Esop,  well-nigh 
fabulous,  to  fabled  fellow-slaves  and  Athenian  tyrants,  or  by  La 
Fontaine  to  the  Grand  Monarch  and  the  most  highly  civilized 
race  of  seventeenth-century  Europe. 

Fables  are  vessels  made  to  order  into  which  a  lesson  may  be 
poured.  Myths  are  born,  not  made.  They  are  born  in  the  infancy, 
of  a  people.  They  owe  their  features  not  to  any  one  historic  indi- 
vidual, but  to  the  imaginative  efforts  of  generations  of  story-tellers. 
The  myth  of  Pandora,  the  first  woman,  endowed  by  the  immortals 
with  heavenly  graces,  and  of  Prometheus,  who  stole  fire  from  heaven 
for  the  use  of  man  ;  the  myth  of  the  earthborn  giants  that  in  the 
beginning  contested  with  the  gods  the  sovereignty  of  the  universe  ; 
of  the  moon-goddess  who,  with  her  buskined  nymphs,  pursues  the 
chase  across  the  azure  of  the  heavens,  or  descending  to  earth  cher- 
ishes the  youth  Endymion,  —  these  myths,  germinating  in  some 
quaint  and  childish  interpretation  of  natural  events  or  in  some  fire- 
side fancy,  have  put  forth  unconsciously,  under  the  nurture  of  the 
simple  folk  that  conceived  and  tended  them,  luxuriant  branches  and 
leaves  of  narrative,  and  blossoms  of  poetic  comeliness  and  form. 

The  myths  that  we  shall  relate  present  wonderful  accounts  of  the 
creation,  histories  of  numerous  divine  beings,  adventures  of  heroes 
in  which  magical  and  ghostly  agencies  play  a  part,  and  where 
animals  and  inanimate  nature  don  the  attributes  of  men  and  gods. 
Many  of  these  myths  treat  of  divinities  once  worshiped  by  the 
Greeks  and  the  Romans,  and  by  our  Norse  and  German  fore- 
fathers in  the  dark  ages.  Myths,  more  or  less  like  these,  may  be 
found  in  the  literatures  of  nearly  all  nations  ;  many  are  in  the 
memories  and  mouths  of  savage  races  at  this  time  existent.  But 
the  stories  here  narrated  are  no  longer  believed  by  any  one.  The 
so-called  divinities  of  Olympus  and  of  Asgard  have  not  a  single 
worshiper  among  men.  They  dwell  only  in  the  realm  of  memory 
and  imagination  ;  they  are  enthroned  in  the  palace  of  art. 

The  stories  of  Greek,  Roman,  Norse,  and  German  mythology 
that  have  most  influenced  our  English  literature  will  follow  in  the 


GREEK  MYTHS  OF  THE  CREATION  3 

order  named.  The  Romans,  being  by  nature  a  practical,  not  a 
poetic,  people,  incorporated  in  their  literature  the  mythology  of 
the  Greeks.  We  shall,  however,  append  to  our  description  of  the 
Greek  gods  a  brief  account  of  the  native  Latin  divinities  that 
retained  an  individuality  in  Roman  literature. 

3.  Origin  of  the  World.^  There  were  among  the  Greeks  several 
accounts  of  the  beginning  of  things.  Homer  tells  us  that  River 
Ocean,  a  deep  and  mighty  flood,  encircling  land  and  sea  like  a 
serpent  with  its  tail  in  its  mouth,  was  the  source  of  all.  Accord- 
ing to  other  myths  Night  and  Darkness  were  the  prime  elements 


Fig.  I.  Jupiter  surveying  the  World 


of  Nature,  and  from  them  sprang  Light.  Still  a  third  theor}^, 
attributed  to  Orpheus,  asserts  that  Time  was  in  the  beginning, 
but  had  himself  no  beginning ;  that  from  him  proceeded  Chaos, 
a  yawning  abyss  wherein  brooded  Night  and  Mist  and  fiery  air, 
or  ^ther ;  that  Time  caused  the  mist  to  spin  round  the  central 
fiery  air  till  the  mass,  assuming  the  form  of  a  huge  world  egg, 
flew,  by  reason  of  its  rapid  rotation,  into  halves.  Of  these,  one 
was  Heaven,  the  other  Earth.  From  the  center  of  the  egg  pro- 
ceeded Eros  (Love)  and  other  wondrous  beings. 

1  Supplementary  information  concerning  many  of  the  myths  may  be  found  in  the  corre- 
sponding sections  of  the  Commentary.  For  the  pronunciation  of  names  see  Index,  and  Rules 
preceding  the  Index. 


4  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

But  the  most  consistent  account  of  the  origin  of  the  world  and 
of  the  gods  is  given  by  the  poet  Hesiod,  who  tells  us  that  Chaos, 
the  yawning  abyss,  composed  of  Void,  Mass,  and  Darkness  in 
confusion,  preceded  all  things  else.  Next  came  into  being  broad- 
bosomed  Earth,  and  beautiful  Love  who  should  rule  the  hearts  of 
gods  and  men.  But  from  Chaos  itself  issued  Erebus,^  the  mys- 
terious darkness  that  is  under  Earth,  —  and  Night,  dwelling  in 
the  remote  regions  of  sunset. 

From  Mother  Earth  proceeded  first  the  starry  vault  of  Heaven, 
durable  as  brass  or  iron,  where  the  gods  were  to  take  up  their  abode. 
Earth  brought  forth  next  the  mountains  and  fertile  fields,  the  stony 
plains,  the  sea,  and  the  plants  and  animals  that  possess  them. 

4.  Origin  of  the  Gods.  So  far  we  have  a  history  of  the  throes 
and  changes  of  the  physical  world ;  now  begins  the  history  of 
gods  and  of  men.  For  in  the  heart  of  creation  Love  begins  to 
stir,  making  of  material  things  creatures  male  and  female,  and 
bringing  them  together  by  instinctive  affinity.  First  Erebus  and 
Night,  the  children  of  Chaos,  are  wedded,  and  from  them  spring 
Light  and  Day ;  then  Uranus,  the  personified  Heaven,  takes  Gcea, 
the  Earth,  to  wife,  and  from  their  union  issue  Titans  and  hundred- 
handed  monsters  and  Cyclopes. 

The  Titans  ^  appear  to  be  the  personification  of  mighty  con- 
vulsions of  the  physical  world,  of  volcanic  eruptions  and  earth- 
quakes. They  played  a  quarrelsome  part  in  mythical  history ; 
they  were  instigators  of  hatred  and  strife.  Homer  mentions  spe- 
cially two  of  them,  lapetus  and  Cronus ;  but  Hesiod  enumerates 
thirteen.  Of  these,  the  more  important  are  Oceanus  and  Tethys, 
Hyperion  and  Thea,  Cronus  and  Rhea,  lapetus,  Themis,  and 
Mnemosyne.  The  three  Cyclopes  represented  the  terrors  of  roll- 
ing thunder,  of  the  lightning-fiash,  and  of  the  thunderbolt ;  and, 
probably,  for  this  reason,  one  fiery  eye  was  deemed  enough  for 
each.  The  hundred-handed  monsters,  or  Hecatojichires,  were  also 
three  in  number.  In  them,  probably,  the  Greeks  imaged  the  sea 
with  its  multitudinous  waves,  its  roar,  and  its  breakers  that  seem 
to  shake  the  earth.    These  lightning-eyed,  these  hundred-handed 

1  So  far  as  possible,  Latin  designations,  or  Latinized  forms  of  Greek  names,  are  used. 

2  On  the  Titans,  etc.,  Preller's  Griech.  Mythol.  i,  37. 


GREEK  MYTHS  OF  THE  CREATION  5 

monsters,  their  father  Uranus  feared,  and  attempted  to  destroy  by 
thrusting  them  into  Tartarus,  the  profound  abysm  of  the  earth. 
Whereupon  Mother  Earth,  or  Gaea,  indignant,  called  for  help  upon 
her  elder  children,  the  Titans.  None  dared  espouse  her  cause 
save  Cronus,  the  crafty.  With  an  iron  sickle  he  lay  in  wait  for 
his  sire,  fell  upon  him,  and  drove  him,  grievously  wounded,  from 
the  encounter.  From  the  blood  of  the  mutilated  Uranus  leaped 
into  being  the  Furies,  whose  heads  writhe  with  serpents  ;  the 
Giants,  a  novel  race  of  monsters ;  and  the  Melic  Nymphs,  in- 
vidious maidens  of  the  ashen  spear. 

5.  The  Rule  of  Cronus.  Now  follows  the  reign  of  Cronus,  lord 
of  Heaven  and  Earth.  He  is,  from  the  beginning,  of  incalculable 
years.  In  works  of  art  his  head  is  veiled,  to  typify  his  cunning  and 
his  reserve  ;  he  bears  the  sickle  not  only  as  memento  of  the  means 
by  which  he  brought  his  father's  tyranny  to  end,  but  as  symbol  of 
the  new  period  of  growth  and  golden  harvests  that  he  ushered  in. 

For  unknown  ages  Cronus  and  Rhea,  his  sister-queen,  governed 
Heaven  and  Earth.  To  them  were  born  three  daughters,  Vesta, 
Ceres,  and  Juno,  and  three  sons,  Pluto,  Neptune,  and  Jupiter. 
Cronus,  however,  having  learned  from  his  parents  that  he  should 
be  dethroned  by  one  of  his  own  children,  conceived  the  well-inten- 
tioned but  ill-considered  device  of  swallowing  each  as  it  was  born. 
His  queen,  naturally  desirous  of  discouraging  the  practice, — when 
it  came  to  the  turn  of  her  sixth  child,  palmed  off  on  the  insatiable 
Cronus  a  stone  carefully  enveloped  in  swaddling  clothes.  Jupiter 
(or  Zeus),  the  rescued  infant,  was  concealed  in  the  island  of  Crete, 
where,  nurtured  by  the  nymphs  Adrastea  and  Ida,  and  fed  on  the 
milk  of  the  goat  Amalthea,  he  in  due  season  attained  maturity. 
Then,  assisted  by  his  grandmother  Gaea,  he  constrained  Cronus  to 
disgorge  the  burden  of  his  cannibal  repasts.  First  came  to  light 
the  memorable  stone,  which  was  placed  in  safe  keeping  at  Delphi ; 
then  the  five  brothers  and  sisters  of  Jupiter,  ardent  to  avenge 
themselves  upon  the  unnatural  author  of  their  existence  and 
their  captivity. 

6.  The  War  of  the  Titans.  In  the  war  which  ensued  lapetus 
and  all  the  Titans,  except  Oceanus,  ranged  themselves  on  the  side 
of  their  brother  Cronus  against  Jupiter  and  his  recently  recovered 


6  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

kinsfolk.  Jupiter  and  his  hosts  held  Mount  Olympus.  For  ages 
victory  wavered  in  the  balance.  Finally  Jupiter,  acting  again  under 
the  advice  of  Gasa,  released  from  Tartarus,  where  Uranus  had  con- 
fined them,  the  Cyclopes  and  the  Hecatonchires.  Instantly  they 
hastened  to  the  battle-field  of  Thessaly,  the  Cyclopes  to  support 
Jupiter  with  their  thunders  and  lightnings,  the  hundred-handed 
monsters  with  the  shock  of  the  earthquake.  Provided  with  such 
artillery,  shaking  earth  and  sea,  Jupiter  issued  to  the  onslaught. 
With  the  gleam  of  the  lightning  the  Titans  were  blinded,  by  the 
earthquake  they  were  laid  low,  with  the  flames  they  were  well-nigh 
consumed  :  overpowered  and  fettered  by  the  hands  of  the  Hecaton- 
chires, they  were  consigned  to  the  yawning  cave  of  Tartarus. 
Atlas,  the  son  of  lapetus,  was  doomed  to  bear  the  heavens  on  his 
shoulders.  But  a  more  famous  son  of  the  same  Titan,  Prometheus, 
who  had  espoused  the  cause  of  Jove,  acquired  dignity  hereafter  to 
be  set  forth. 

7.  The  Division  of  Empire.  In  the  council  of  the  gods  that 
succeeded,  Jupiter  was  chosen  Sovereign  of  the  World.  He  dele- 
gated to  his  brother  Neptune  (or  Poseidon)  the  kingdom  of  the  sea 
and  of  all  the  waters  ;  to  his  brother  Pluto  (or  Hades),  the  govern- 
ment of  the  underworld,  dark,  unseen,  mysterious,  where  the  spirits 
of  the  dead  should  dwell,  and  of  Tartarus,  wherein  were  held  the 
fallen  Titans.  For  himself  Jupiter  retained  Earth  and  the  Heaven, 
into  whose  broad  and  sunny  regions  towered  Olympus,  the  favored 
mountain  of  the  greater  gods.^ 

8.  The  Reign  of  Jupiter.  New  conflicts,  however,  awaited  this 
new  dynasty  of  Heaven  —  conflicts,  the  subject  of  many  a  tale 
among  the  ancients.  Gaea,  though  she  had  aided  her  grandson 
Jupiter  in  the  war  against  Cronus,  was  soon  seized  with  compunc- 
tions of  conscience  ;  and  contemplating  the  cruel  fate  of  her  sons 
the  Titans,  she  conceived  schemes  of  vengeance  upon  their  con- 
queror. Another  son  was  born  to  her —  Typhon,  a  monster  more 
awful  than  his  predecessors  —  whose  destiny  it  was  to  dispute  the 
sway  of  the  almighty  Zeus.  From  the  neck  of  Typhon  dispread 
themselves  a  hundred  dragon-heads  ;  his  eyes  shot  fire,  and  from 
his  black-tongued  chaps   proceeded   the  hissing  of  snakes,   the 

1  On  signification  of  Uranus,  Cronus,  Zeus,  see  Preller,  i.  37,  38,  and  Commentary,  §§  4,  24. 


GREEK  MYTHS  OF  THE  CREATION 


bellowing  of  bulls,  the  roaring  of  lions,  the  barking  of  dogs,  pip- 
ings and  screams,  and,  at  times,  the  voice  and  utterance  of  the 
gods  themselves.  Against  Heaven  this  horror  lifted  himself ;  but 
quailing  before  the  thunderbolt  of  Jove,  he  too  descended  to 
Tartarus,  his  own  place  and  the  abode  of  his  brethren.  To  this 
day,  however,  he  grumbles  and  hisses,  thrusts  upward  a  fiery 
tongue  through   the    crater 


of  a  volcano,  or,  breathing 
siroccos,  scorches  trees  and 
men. 

Later  still,  the  Gimits,  f 
offspring  of  the  blood  that 
fell  from  the  wounded  Ura- 
nus, renewed  the  revolt 
against  the  Olympian  gods. 
They  were  creatures  nearer 
akin  to  men  than  were  the 
Titans,  or  the  Cyclopes,  or 
Typhon.  They  clothed  them- 
selves in  the  skins  of  beasts, 
and  armed  themselves  with 
rocks  and  trunks  of  trees. 
Their  bodies  and  lower  limbs 
were  of  snakes.  They  were 
awful  to  encounter  or  to  look 
upon.  They  were  named,  like  men,  the  earthborn ;  and  their 
characteristics  would  suggest  some  prehistoric  brutish  race,  hot- 
headed, not  amenable  to  reason.^  Of  the  Giants,  the  more  mighty 
were  Alcyoneus  of  the  winter  storms  and  icebergs,  Pallas,  and 
Enceladus,  and  Porphyrion  the  fire-king,  —  leader  of  the  crew. 
In  the  war  against  them,  Juno  and  Minerva,  divinities  of  the  new 
dynasty  of  Heaven,  took  active  part,  —  and  Hercules,  an  earthly 
son  of  Jupiter,  whose  arrows  aided  in  their  defeat.  It  was  from 
the  overthrow  of  Pallas  that  Athena  (or  Minerva)  derived,  according 
to  certain  records,  her  proud  designation  of  Pallas- Athena.^    In 

1  Roscher,  Ausf.  Lex.,  Article  Gigantcn  [J.  Ilberg]. 

*  The  name  more  probably  signifies  Brandisher  [of  the  Lance]. 


Fig.  2.   Athena  and  Giant 


8  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

due  course,  like  the  Titans  and  Typhon,  the  Giants  were  buried 
in  the  abyss  of  eternal  darkness.  What  other  outcome  can  be 
expected  when  mere  physical  or  brute  force  joins  issue  with  the 
enlightened  and  embattled  hosts  of  heaven  ? 


Fig.  3.   Zeus  and  Giants 

9.  The  Origin  of  Man  was  a  question  which  the  Greeks  did  no\ 
settle  so  easily  as  the  Hebrews.  Greek  traditions  do  not  trace  all 
mankind  to  an  original  pair.  On  the  contrary,  the  generally 
received  opinion  was  that  men  grew  out  of  trees  and  stones,  or 
were  produced  by  the  rivers  or  the  sea.  Some  said  that  men  and 
gods  were  both  derived  from  Mother  Earth,  hence  both  autochtho- 
nous ;  and  some,  indeed,  claimed  an  antiquity  for  the  human  race 
equal  to  that  of  the  divinities.  All  narratives,  however,  agree  in 
one  statement,  —  that  the  gods  maintained  intimate  relations  with 
men  until,  because  of  the  growing  sinfulness  and  arrogance  of 
mankind,  it  became  necessary  for  the  immortals  to  withdraw  their 
favor. 

10.  Prometheus,  a  Creator.  There  is  a  story  which  attributes 
the  making  of  man  to  Prometheus,  whose  father  lapetus  had, 
with  Cronus,  opposed  the  sovereignty  of  Jupiter.  In  that  conflict, 
Prometheus,  gifted  with  prophetic  wisdom,  had  adopted  the  cause 


GREEK  MYTHS  OF  THE  CREATION 


of  the  Olympian  deities.  To  him 
and  his  brother  Epimetheus  was 
now  committed  the  office  of 
making  man  and  providing  him 
and  all  other  animals  with  the 
faculties  necessary  for  their 
preservation.  Prometheus  was 
to  overlook  the  work  of  Epime- 
theus. Epimetheus  proceeded 
to  bestow  upon  the  different 
animals  the  various  gifts  of 
courage,  strength,  swiftness,  sa- 
gacity ;  wings  to  one,  claws  to 
another,  a  shelly  covering  to  a 
third.  But  Prometheus  himself 
made  a  nobler  animal  than  these. 
Taking  some  earth  and  knead- 
ing it  with  water,,  he  made  man 
in  the  image  of  the  gods.  He 
gave  him  an  upright  stature,  so 
that  while  other  animals  turn 
their  faces  toward  the  earth, 
man  gazes  on  the  stars.  Then 
since  Epimetheus,  always  rash, 
and  thoughtful  when  too  late, 
had  been  so  prodigal  of  his 
gifts  to  other  animals  that  no 
blessing  was  left  worth  confer- 
ring upon  the  noblest  of  crea- 
tures, Prometheus  ascended  to 
heaven,  lighted  his  torch  at  the 
chariot  of  the  sun,  and  brought 
down  fire.  With  fire  in  his 
possession  man  would  be  able 
to  win  her  secrets  and  treasures 
from  the  earth,  to  develop  com- 
merce, science,  and  the  arts. 


lO  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

11.  The  Age  of  Gold.  Whether  in  this  or  in  other  ways  the 
world  was  furnished  with  inhabitants,  the  first  age  was  an  age  of 
innocence  and  happiness.  Truth  and  right  prevailed,  though  not 
enforced  by  law,  nor  was  there  any  in  authority  to  threaten  or  to 
punish.  The  forest  had  not  yet  been  robbed  of  its  trees  to  yield 
timbers  for  vessels,  nor  had  men  built  fortifications  round  their 
towns.  There  were  no  such  things  as  swords,  spears,  or  helmets. 
The  earth  brought  forth  all  things  necessary  for  man,  without  his 
labor  in  plowing  or  sowing.  Perpetual  spring  reigned,  flowers 
sprang  up  without  seed,  the  rivers  flowed  with  milk  and  wine,  and 
yellow  honey  distilled  from  the  oaks.  This  Golden  Age  had  begun 
in  the  reign  of  Cronus.^  And  when  these  heroes  fell  asleep  in 
death,  they  were  translated  in  a  pleasant  dream  to  a  spiritual  exist- 
ence, in  which,  unseen  by  mortal  eyes,  they  still  attended  men  as 
monitors  and  guardians. 

12.  The  Silver  Age  came  next,  inferior  to  the  golden.  Jupiter 
shortened  the  spring,  and  divided  the  year  into  seasons.  Then,  first, 
men  suffered  the  extremes  of  heat  and  cold,  and  houses  became 
necessary.  Caves  were  their  dwellings,  —  and  leafy  coverts  of  the 
woods,  and  huts  woven  of  twigs.  Crops  would  no  longer  grow  with- 
out planting.  The  farmer  was  constrained  to  sow  the  seed,  and  the 
ox  to  draw  the  plow.  This  was  a  race  of  manly  men,  but  insolent 
and  impious.  And  when  they  died,  Jupiter  made  them  ghosts  of 
the  underworld,  but  withheld  the  privilege  of  immortal  life. 

13.  Prometheus,  Champion  of  Man.  During  this  age  when,  as 
Hesiod  says,  the  altars  of  the  blessed  were  neglected,  and  the 
gods  were  denied  their  due,  Prometheus  stood  forth  —  the  cham- 
pion of  man  against  the  Olympians.^  For  the  son  of  Cronus  had 
grudged  mortals  the  use  of  fire,  and  was,  in  fact,  contemplating 
their  annihilation  and  the  creation  of  a  new  race.  Therefore,  once 
upon  a  time,  when  gods  and  men  were  in  dispute  at  Sicyon  con- 
cerning the  prerogatives  of  each,  Prometheus,  by  an  ingenious 
trick,  attempted  to  settle  the  question  in  favor  of  man.  Dividing 
into  two  portions  a  sacrificial  bull,  he  wrapped  all  the  eatable  parts 

1  Consequently  the  creation  of  these  men  could  not  be  assigned  to  Prometheus,  —  unless 
they  were  made  by  him  before  the  war  of  the  Titans. 

2  There  is  uncertainty  as  to  the  mythical  period  of  these  events.  The  order  here  given 
seems  to  me  well  grounded.   Hes.  Works  and  Days,   i8o ;  Theog.  790-910. 


GREEK  MYTHS  OF  THE  CREATION  n 

in  the  skin,  cunningly  surmounted  with  uninviting  entrails  ;  but 
the  bones  he  garnished  with  a  plausible  mass  of  fat.  He  then 
offered  Jupiter  his  choice.  The  king  of  Heaven,  although  he  per- 
ceived the  intended  fraud,  took  the  heap  of  bones  and  fat,  and, 
forthwith  availing  himself  of  this  insult  as  an  excuse  for  punishing 
mankind,  deprived  the  race  of  fire.  But  Prometheus  regained  the 
treasure,  stealing  it  from  Heaven  in  a  hollow  tube. 

14.  Pandora.  Doubly  enraged,  Jupiter,  in  his  turn,  had  recourse 
to  stratagem.  He  is  declared  to  have  planned  for  man  a  curse 
in  the  shape  of  woman.  How  the  race  had  persisted  hitherto  with- 
out woman  is  a  mystery ;  but  that  it  had  done  so,  with  no  slight 
degree  of  happiness,  the  experience  of  the  Golden  Age  would 
seem  to  prove.  However,  the  bewitching  evil  was  fashioned,  — 
in  Heaven,  properly  enough,  —  and  every  god  and  goddess  contrib- 
uted something  to  her  perfection.  One  gave  her  beaut\'.  another 
persuasive  charm,  a  third  the  faculty  of  music.  And  they  named 
her  Pandora,  "the  gift  of  all  the  gods."  Thus  equipped,  she  was 
conveyed  to  earth  and  presented  to  Epimetheus,  who,  without 
hesitation,  accepted  the  gift,  though  cautioned  by  his  brother  to 
beware  of  Jupiter  and  all  his  ways.  And  the  caution  was  not 
groundless.  In  the  hand  of  Pandora  had  been  placed  by  the 
immortals  a  casket  or  vase  which  she  was  forbidden  to  open. 
Overcome  by  an  unaccountable  curiosity  to  know  what  this  vessel 
contained,  she  one  day  lifted  the  cover  and  looked  in.  Forthwith 
theie  escaped  a  multitude  of  plagues  for  hapless  man  —  gout,  rheu- 
matisrn,  and  colic  for  his  body ;  envy,  spite,  and  revenge  for  his 
mind  — and  scattered  themselves  far  and  wide.  Pandora  hastened 
to  replace  the  lid  ;  but  one  thing  only  remained  in  the  casket,  and 
that  was  hope. 

15.  Prometheus  Bound.  Because  of  his  unselfish  devotion  to 
the  cause  of  humanity,  Prometheus  drew  down  on  himself  the 
anger  of  Olympian  Jove,  by  whose  order  he  was  chained  to  a  rock 
on  Mount  Caucasus,  and  subjected  to  the  attack  of  an  eagle  (or  a 
vulture)  which,  for  ages,  preyed  upon  his  liver,  yet  succeeded  not 
in  consuming  it.  This  state  of  torment  might  have  been  brought 
to  an  end  at  any  time  by  Prometheus,  if  he  had  been  willing  to 
submit  to  his  oppressor  ;  for  he  possessed  a  secret  which  involved 


12  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

the  stability  of  Jove's  throne.  This  was  that  by  a  certain  woman 
Jove  would  beget  a  son  who  should  displace  him  and  end  the  sway 
of  the  Olympians.  The  god  naturally  desired  more  accurate  infor- 
mation of  this  decree  of  Fate.  But  to  reveal  the  secret  Prometheus 
disdained.  In  this  steadfastness  the  Titan  was  supported  by  the 
knowledge  that  in  the  thirteenth  generation  there  should  arrive  a 
hero,  —  sprung  from  Jove  himself,  —  to  release  him.^  And  in  full- 
ness of  time  the  hero  did  arrive  :  none  other  than  the  mighty 
Hercules  desirous  of  rendering  the  highest  service  to  mankind. 
No  higher  service,  thinks  this  radiant  and  masterful  personage, — 
who,  as  we  shall  see,  had  already  cleared  the  world  of  many  a 
monster,  —  remains  to  be  performed  than  to  free  the  champion  of 
mankind,  suffering  through  the  ages  because  he  had  brought  light 
into  the  world.  "  The  soul  of  man,"  says  Hercules  to  the  Titan  — 

The  soul  of  man  can  never  be  enslaved 

Save  by  its  own  infirmities,  nor  freed 

Save  by  its  very  strength  and  own  resolve 

And  constant  vision  and  supreme  endeavor ! 

You  will  be  free  ?    Then,  courage,  O  my  brother ! 

O  let  the  soul  stand  in  the  open  door 

Of  life  and  death  and  knowledge  and  desire 

And  see  the  peaks  of  thought  kindle  with  sunrise ! 

Then  shall  the  soul  return  to  rest  no  more, 

Nor  harvest  dreams  in  the  dark  field  of  sleep  — 

Rather  the  soul  shall  go  with  great  resolve 

To  dwell  at  last  upon  the  shining  mountains 

In  liberal  converse  with  the  eternal  stars.^ 

And  he  kills  the  \ailture ;  and  sets  Jove's  victim  free. 

By  his   demeanor   Prometheus   has  become  the   ensample   of 
magnanimous  endurance,  and  of  resistance  to  oppression. 

Titan  !  to  whose  immortal  eves 

The  sufferings  of  mortality, 

Seen  in  their  sad  reality, 
Were  not  as  things  that  gods  despise, 
What  was  thy  pity's  recompense  ? 
A  silent  suffering,  and  intense ; 

1  §§  156,  161,  191  and  Commentary,  §  10. 

2  From  Herakles,  a  drama  by  George  Cabot  Lodge. 


GREEK  MYTHS  OF  THE  CREATION  13 

The  rock,  the  vulture,  and  the  chain, 
All  that  the  proud  can  feel  of  pain, 
The  agony  they  do  not  show, 
The  suffocating  sense  of  woe, 
Which  speaks  but  in  its  loneliness. 
And  then  is  jealous  lest  the  sky 
Should  have  a  listener,  nor  will  sigh 
Until  its  voice  is  echoless.  .  .  . 

Thy  godlike  crime  was  to  be  kind, 

To  render  witli  thy  precepts  less 

The  sum  of  human  wretchedness, 
And  strengthen  man  with  his  own  mind. 
But,  baffled  as  thou  wert  from  high. 
Still,  in  thy  patient  energy. 
In  the  endurance  and  repulse 

Of  thine  impenetrable  spirit, 
Which  earth  and  heaven  could  not  convulse, 

A  mighty  lesson  we  inherit.^  .  .  . 

16.  Longfellow's  Prometheus.    A  happy  application  of  the  story 
of  Prometheus  is  made  by  Longfellow  in  the  following  verses  i^ 

Of  Prometheus,  how  undaunted 

On  Olympus'  shining  bastions 
His  audacious  foot  he  planted. 
Myths  are  told,  and  songs  are  chanted. 

Full  of  promptings  and  suggestions. 

Beautiful  is  the  tradition 

Of  that  flight  through  heavenly  portals, 

The  old  classic  superstition 

Of  the  theft  and  the  transmission 
Of  the  fire  of  the  Immortals  ! 

First  the  deed  of  noble  daring. 

Born  of  heavenward  aspiration. 
Then  the  fire  with  mortals  sharing. 
Then  the  vulture,  — the  despairing 

Cry  of  pain  on  crags  Caucasian. 

1  From  Byron's  Prometheus.   See  also  his  translation  from  the  Prometheus  Vinctus  of 
jEschylus,  and  his  Ode  to  Napoleon  Buonaparte. 

2  Prometheus,  or  The  Poet's  Forethought.    See  Commentary 


14  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

All  is  but  a  symbol  painted 

Of  the  Poet,  Prophet,  Seer ; 
Only  those  are  crowned  and  sainted 
Who  with  grief  have  been  acquainted. 
Making  nations  nobler,  freer. 

In  their  feverish  exultations. 

In  their  triumph  and  their  yearning, 
In  their  passionate  pulsations. 
In  their  words  among  the  nations, 
The  Promethean  fire  is  burning. 

Shall  it,  then,  be  unavailing. 

All  this  toil  for  human  culture? 
Through  the  cloud-rack,  dark  and  trailing 
Must  they  see  above  them  sailing 
O'er  life's  barren  crags  the  vulture.^ 

Such  a  fate  as  this  was  Dante's, 

By  defeat  and  exile  maddened ; 
Thus  were  Milton  and  Cervantes, 
Nature's  priests  and  Corybantes, 
By  affliction  touched  and  saddened. 

But  the  glories  so  transcendent 

That  around  their  memories  cluster. 
And,  on  all  their  steps  attendant, 
Make  their  darkened  lives  resplendent 
With  such  gleams  of  inward  lustre ! 

All  the  melodies  mysterious. 

Through  the  dreary  darkness  chanted ; 
Thoughts  in  attitudes  imperious, 
Voices  soft,  and  deep,  and  serious, 

Words  that  whispered,  songs  that  haunted ! 

All  the  soul  in  rapt  suspension, 
All  the  quivering,  palpitating 

Chords  of  life  in  utmost  tension, 

With  the  fervor  of  invention. 
With  the  rapture  of  creating ! 


GREEK  MYTHS  OF  THE  CREATION  15 

Ah,  Prometheus  !  heaven-scaling ! 

In  such  hours  of  exultation 
Even  the  faintest  heart,  unquailing, 
Might  behold  the  vulture  sailing 

Round  the  cloudy  crags  Caucasian  ! 

Though  to  all  there  is  not  given 

Strength  for  such  sublime  endeavor, 
Thus  ta  scale  the  walls  of  heaven, 
And  to  leaven  with  fiery  leaven 

All  the  hearts  of  men  forever ; 

Yet  all  bards,  whose  hearts  unblighted 

Honor  and  believe  the  presage, 
Hold  aloft  their  torches  lighted. 
Gleaming  through  the  realms  benighted. 

As  they  onward  bear  the  message  ! 

17.  The  Brazen  Age.  Next  to  the  Age  of  Silver  came  that  of 
brass/  more  savage  of  temper  and  readier  for  the  strife  of  arms, 
yet  not  altogether  wicked. 

18.  The  Iron  Age.  Last  came  the  hardest  age  and  worst,  — of 
iron.  Crime  burst  in  like  a  flood  ;  modesty,  truth,  and  honor  fled. 
The  gifts  of  the  earth  were  put  only  to  nefarious  uses.  Fraud,  vio- 
lence, war  at  home  and  abroad  were  rife.  The  world  was  wet 
with  slaughter ;  and  the  gods,  one  by  one,  abandoned  it,  Astraea, 
following  last,  goddess  of  innocence  and  purity. 

19.  The  Flood.  Jupiter,  observing  the  condition  of  things, 
burned  with  anger.  He  summoned  the  gods  to  council.  Obeying 
the  call,  they  traveled  the  Milky  Way  to  the  palace  of  Heaven. 
There,  Jupiter  set  forth  to  the  assembly  the  frightful  condition  of 
the  earth,  and  announced  his  intention  of  destroying  its  inhabit- 
ants, and  providing  a  new  race,  unlike  the  present,  which  should 
be  worthier  of  life  and  more  reverent  toward  the  gods.  Fearing 
lest  a  conflagration  might  set  Heaven  itself  on  fire,  he  proceeded 
to  drown  the  world.  Not  satisfied  with  his  own  water:;,  he  called 
his  brother  Neptune  to  his  aid.  Speedily  the  race  of  men,  and 
their  possessions,  were  swept  away  by  the  deluge, 

1  Compare  Byron's  political  satire,  The  Age  of  Bronze. 


1 6  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

20.  Deucalion  and  Pyrrha.  Parnassus  alone,  of  the  mountains, 
overtopped  the  waves  ;  and  there  DeucaHon,  son  of  Prometheus, 
and  his  wife  Pyrrha,  daughter  of  Epimetheus,  found  refuge  —  he 
a  just  man  and  she  a  faithful  worshiper  of  the  gods.  Jupiter,  re- 
membering the  harmless  lives  and  pious  demeanor  of  this  pair, 
caused  the  waters  to  recede,  —  the  sea  to  return  to  its  shores,  and 
the  rivers  to  their  channels.  Then  Deucalion  and  Pyrrha,  enter- 
ing a  temple  defaced  with  slime,  approached  the  unkindled  altar 
and,  falling  prostrate,  prayed  for  guidance  and  aid.  The  oracle  ^ 
answered,  '"  Depart  from  the  temple  with  head  veiled  and  garments 
unbound,  and  cast  behind  you  the  bones  of  your  mother."  They 
heard  the  words  with  astonishment.  Pyrrha  first  broke  silence  : 
'"  We  cannot  obey  ;  we  dare  not  profane  the  remains  of  our  parents." 
They  sought  the  woods,  and  revolved  the  oracle  in  their  minds. 
At  last  Deucalion  spoke:  "Either  my  wit  fails  me  or  the  com- 
mand is  one  we  may  obey  without  impiety.  The  earth  is  the  great 
parent  of  all ;  the  stones  are  her  bones  ;  these  we  may  cast  behind 
us ;  this,  I  think,  the  oracle  means.  At  least,  to  try  will  harm  us 
not."  They  veiled  their  faces,  unbound  their  garments,  and,  pick- 
ing up  stones,  cast  them  behind  them.  The  stones  began  to  grow 
soft  and  to  assume  shape.  By  degrees  they  put  on  a  rude  resem- 
blance to  the  human  form.  Those  thrown  by  Deucalion  became 
men  ;  those  by  Pyrrha,  women.  It  was  a  hard  race  that  sprang  up, 
and  well  adapted  to  labor. 

21.  The  Demigods  and  Heroes.  As  preceding  the  Age  of  Iron, 
Hesiod  mentions  an  Age  of  Demigods  and  Heroes.  Since,  how- 
ever, these  demigods  and  heroes  were,  many  of  them,  reputed  to 
have  been  directly  descended  from  Deucalion,  their  epoch  must  be 
regarded  as  subsequent  to  the  deluge.  The  hero,  Hellen,  son  of 
Deucalion  and  Pyrrha,  became  the  ancestor  of  the  Hellenes,  or 
Greeks,  The  yEolians  and  Dorians  were,  according  to  legend, 
descended  from  his  sons  ^olus  and  Dorus  ;  from  his  son  Xuthus, 
the  Achapans  and  lonians  derived  their  origin. 

Another  great  division  of  the  Greek  people,  the  Pelasgic,  resi- 
dent in  the  Peloponnesus  or  southern  portion  of  the  peninsula, 
was  said  to  have  sprung  from  a  different  stock  of  heroes,  that  of 

1  Oracles,  see  §§  24,  30,  and  Commentary. 


GREEK  MYTHS  OF  THE  CREATION 


17 


Pelasgus,  son  of  Phoroneus  of  Argos  and  grandson  of  the  river- 
god  Inachus. 

The  demigods  and  heroes  were  of  matchless  worth  and  valor. 
Their  adventures  form  the  subject  of  many  of  the  succeeding  chap- 
ters. The  Older  Heroes,  especially,  were  endowed  with  godlike 
qualities,  which  they  devoted  to  the  service  of  mankind  in  the 
destruction  of  monsters,  the  founding  of  cities,  or  the  introduction 
of  civilization.  Such  were  Perseus,  the  hero  of  Argos  and  his 
descendant  Hercules,  who  came  to  be  worshiped  as  the  national 
hero  of  the  Greeks.  Such,  too,  Cadmus,  the  founder  of  Thebes, 
and  Cecrops  of  Athens,  and  one  of  his  successors,  Theseus,  a 
"  second  Hercules."  Each  city  of  Greece  had  its  patron  hero,  to 
whom  it  accorded  the  honors  of  divinity.  The  Younger  Heroes 
were  chieftains  in  the  Theban  and  the  Trojan  wars  and  in  numer- 
ous other  military  or  predatoiy  expeditions. 


Fig,  5.    Poseidon,  Dionysus,  and  Goddess 


CHAPTER  II 


THE  GODS  OF  HEAVEN  ^ 

22.  Olympus.  The  heaven  of  the  Greek  gods  was  the  summit 
of  an  ideal  mountain  called  Olympus.^   A  gate  of  clouds,  kept  by 

goddesses,  the  Hours  or  Seasons, 
opened  to  permit  the  passage  of  the 
Celestials  to  earth,  and  to  receive 
them  on  their  return.  The  gods  had 
their  separate  dwellings ;  but  all, 
when  summoned,  repaired  to  the 
palace  of  Jupiter,  —  even  the  deities 
whose  usual  abode  was  the  earth, 
the  waters,  or  the  underworld.  In  the 
great  hall  of  the  Olympian  king  the 
gods  feasted  each  day  on  ambrosia 
and  nectar.  Here  they  conversed  of 
the  affairs  of  heaven  and  earth  ;  and 
as  they  quaffed  the  nectar  that  Hebe 
poured,  Apollo  made  melody  with 
his  lyre  and  the  Muses  sang  in  re- 
sponsive strain.    When  the  sun  was 

set,  the  gods  withdrew  to  their  respective  dwellings  for  the  night. 
The  following  lines  from  the  Odyssey  express  the  conception 

of  Olympus  entertained  by  Homer  : 

So  saying,  Minerva,  goddess,  azure-eyed. 

Rose  to  Olympus,  the  reputed  seat 

Eternal  of  the  gods,  which  never  storms 

Disturb,  rains  drench,  or  snow  invades,  but  calm 

The  expanse  and  cloudless  shines  with  purest  day. 

There  the  inhabitants  divine  rejoice 

Forever.^ 

1  Consult,  in  general,  corresponding  sections  of  the  Commentary. 

2  Symbolized  on  earth  by  Mount  Olympus  in  Thessalv  8  Cowper's  translation. 


FjG.  6.   Two  Hours 


THE  GODS  OF  HEAVEN  1 9 

23.  The  Great  Gods.    The  gods  of  Heaven  were  the  following  :  ^ 

Jupiter  (Zeus).2 

His  daughter,  Minerva  (Athena),  who  sprang  from  his  brain,  full-grown  and 
full-armed. 

His  sister  and  wife,  Juno  (Hera). 

His  children  by  Juno,  —  Mars  (Ares),  Vulcan  (Hephaestus),  and  Hebe. 

His  children  by  Latona,  —  Apollo,  or  Phoebus,  and  Diana  (Artemis). 

His  daughter  by  Dione,  —  Venus  (Aphrodite).^ 

His  son  by  Maia,  —  Mercury  (Hermes). 

His  sister,  Vesta  (Hestia),  the  oldest  born  of  Cronus  and  Rhea. 

Of  these  all  were  deities  of  the  highest  order  save  Hebe,  who 
must  be  ranked  with  the  lesser  gods.  With  the  remaining  ten 
"  Great  Gods  "  are  sometimes  reckoned  the  other  sister  of  Jupiter, 
Ceres  (Demeter),  properly  a  divinity  of  earth,  and  Neptune 
(Poseidon),  ruler  of  the  sea. 

24.  Jupiter  ^  (Zeus).  The  Greek  name  signifies  the  radiant  light 
of  heaven.  Jupiter  was  the  supreme  ruler  of  the  universe,  wisest 
of  the  divinities  and  most  glorious.  In  the  Iliad  he  informs  the 
other  gods  that  their  united  strength  would  not  budge  him  :  that,  on 
the  contrary,  he  could  draw  them  and  earth  and  the  seas  to  him- 
self, and  suspend  all  from  Olympus  by  a  golden  chain.  Throned 
in  the  high,  clear  heavens,  Jupiter  was  the  gatherer  of  clouds  and 
snows,  the  dispenser  of  gentle  rains  and  winds,  the  moderator  of 
light  and  heat  and  the  seasons,  the  thunderer,  the  wielder  of  the 
thunderbolt.  Bodily  strength  and  valor  were  dear  to  him.  He  was 
worshiped  with  various  rites  in  different  lands,  and  to  him  were 
sacred  everywhere  the  loftiest  trees  and  the  grandest  mountain 
peaks.  He  required  of  his  worshipers  cleanliness  of  surroundings 
and  person  and  heart.  Justice  was  his ;  his  to  repay  violation  of 
duty  in  the  family,  in  social  relations,  and  in  the  state.  Prophecy 
was  his  ;  and  his  will  was  made  known  at  the  oracle  of  Dodona, 
where  answers  were  given  to  those  who  inquired  concerning  the 
future.  This  oracular  shrine  was  the  most  ancient  in  Greece. 
According  to  one  account  two  black  doves  had  taken  wing  from 

1  See  Commentary,  §  23,  for  Gladstone's  latest  utterance  on  the  number  of  the  Olympians. 

2  The  names  included  in  parentheses  represent  the  Greek,  the  others  being  Roman 
equivalents,  Latin  names,  or  names  common  to  both  Greek  and  Roman  usage. 

3  See  Commentary,  §  34.  4  On  the  Latin  name,  see  Commentary,  §  24. 


20 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Thebes  in  Egypt.  One  flew  to  Dodona  in  Epirus,  and,  alighting 
in  a  grove  of  oaks,  proclaimed  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  district 
that  they  should  establish  there  an  oracle  of  Jupiter.  The  other 
dove  flew  to  the  temple  of  Jupiter  Ammon  in  the  Libyan  oasis, 
and  delivered  a  similar  command.  According  to  another  account, 
these  were  not  doves  but  priestesses  who,  carried  off  from  Thebes 
by  the  Phoenicians,  set  up  oracles  at  Oasis  and  Dodona.    The 

responses  of  the  oracle  were  given 
by  the  rustling  of  the  oak  trees  in 
the  wind.  The  sounds  were  inter- 
preted by  priests. 

That  Jupiter  himself,  though 
wedded  to  the  goddess  Juno,  should 
be  charged  with  numerous  other 
love  affairs,  not  only  in  respect  of 
goddesses  but  of  mortals,  is,  in 
part,  explained  by  the  fact  that  to 
the  supreme  divinity  of  the  Greeks 
have  been  ascribed  attributes  and 
adventures  of  numerous  local  and 
foreign  divinities  that  were  grad- 
ually identified  with  him.  It  is,  there- 
fore, not  wise  to  assume  that  the 
love  affairs  of  Jupiter  and  of  other 
divinities  always  symbolize  combina- 
tions of  natural  or  physical  forces 
that  have  repeated  themselves  in 
ever-varying  guise.  It  is  important  to  understand  that  the  more 
ideal  Olympian  religion  absorbed  features  of  inferior  religions, 
and  that  Jupiter,  when  represented  as  appropriating  the  char- 
acteristics of  other  gods,  was  sometimes,  also,  accredited  with 
their  wives. 

Beside  the  children  of  Jupiter  already  enumerated,  there  should 
here  be  mentioned,  as  of  peculiar  consequence,  Bacchus  (Diony- 
sus), the  god  of  wine,  a  deity  of  earth,  —  Proserpine,  the  wife  of 
Pluto  and  queen  of  the  underworld, — and  Hercules,  the  greatest 
of  the  heroes. 


P"iG.  7.    Zeus 


THE  GODS  OF  HEAVEN 


21 


25.  Conceptions  of  Jupiter.  The  Greeks  usually  conceived  the 
Jupiter  of  war  as  riding  in  his  thunder-car,  hurling  the  thunder- 
bolt or  lashing  his  enemies  with  a  scourge  of  lightning.  He  wore 
a  breastplate  or  shield  of  storm-cloud  like  the  skin  of  a  gray  goat 
(the  ALgis),  fearful  to  behold,  and  made  by  the  god  of  fire.  His 
special  messenger  was  the  eagle.  It  was,  however,  only  with  the 
passage  of  generations  that  the  Greeks  came  to  represent  their 
greatest  of  the  gods  by  the  works  of  men's  hands.  The  statue  of 
Olympian  Jove  by  Phidias  was  considered  the  highest  achievement 
of  Grecian  sculpture.  It  was  of  colossal  dimensions  and,  like  other 
statues  of  the  period,  "chryselephantine,"  that  is,  composed  of 
ivory  and  gold.  For  the  parts  representing  flesh  were  of  ivory  laid 
on  a  framework  of  wood,  while  the  drapery 
and  ornaments  were  of  gold.  The  height 
of  the  figure  was  forty  feet,  of  the  pedestal 
twelve.  The  god  was  represented  as  seated 
on  his  throne.  His  brows  were  crowned 
with  a  wreath  of  olive  ;  he  held  in  his  right 
hand  a  scepter,  and  in  his  left  a  statue  of 
Victory.  The  throne  was  of  cedar,  adorned 
with  gold  and  precious  stones. 

The  idea  which  the  artist  essayed  to 
embody  was  that  of  the  supreme  deity  of 
the  Hellenic  race,  enthroned  as  a  conqueror,  in  perfect  majesty 
and  repose,  and  ruling  with  a  nod  the  subject  world.  Phidias 
informs  us  that  the  idea  was  suggested  by  Homer's  lines  in  the 
first  book  of  the  Iliad  : 


Fig.  8.   Zeus  after 
Phidias 


Jove  said,  and  nodded  with  his  shadowy  brows ; 
Waved  on  th'  immortal  head  th'  ambrosial  locks,  — 
And  all  Olympus  trembled  at  his  nod.^ 

Unfortunately,  our  knowledge  of  this  famous  statue  is  confined  to 
literary  descriptions,  and  to  copies  on  coins.  Other  representa- 
tions of  Jove  have  been  obtained  from  Greek  bronze  statuettes,  or 
the  wall-paintings  of  Herculaneum  and  Pompeii. 


1  Iliad, 
translation. 


I,   622-625,    Earl  of    Derby's  translation.    See  also  the  passage  in  Chapman's 


22 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


:>SMi 


26.  Juno  ^  (Hera),  sister  and  wife  of  Jupiter.  According  to  some, 
the  name  Hera  means  Splendor  of  Heaven,  according  to  others, 
the  Lady.  Some  think  it  approves  her  goddess  of  earth  ;  others, 
goddess  of  the  air ;  still  others,  for  reasons  by  no  means  final,  say 
that  it  signifies  Protectress,  and  applies  to  Juno  in  her  original  func- 
tion of  moon-goddess,  the  chosen  guardian  of  women,  their  aid  in 
seasons  of  distress.  Juno's  union  with  Jupiter  was  the  prototype  of 
earthly  marriages.  She  is  the  type  of  matronly  virtues  and  dignity. 
She  was  the  daughter  of  Cronus  and  Rhea,  but  was  brought  up 
by  Oceanus  and  Tethys  in  their  dwelling  in  the  remote  west 

beyond  the  sea.  Without  the  knowl- 
edge of  her  parents,  she  was  wedded 
to  Jupiter  in  this  garden  of  the  gods 
where  ambrosial  rivers  flowed,  and 
where  Earth  sent  up  in  honor  of  the 
rite  a  tree  of  life,  heavy  with  apples 
golden  like  the  sunset.  Juno  was  the 
most  worthy  of  the  goddesses,  the 
most  queenly  ;  ox-eyed,  says  Homer  ; 
says.  Hesiod,  golden-sandaled  and 
golden  -  throned.  Glorious  beyond 
compare  was  her  presence,  when 
she  had  harnessed  her  horses,  and 
driven  forth  the  golden-wheeled  chariot  that  Hebe  made  ready, 
and  that  the  Hours  set  aside.  Fearful,  too,  could  be  her  wrath. 
For  she  was  of  a  jealous  disposition,  which  was  not  happily  affected 
by  the  vagaries  of  her  spouse ;  and  she  was,  moreover,  prone  to 
quarrels,  self-willed,  vengeful,  proud,  even  on  occasion  deceitful. 
Once,  indeed,  she  conspired  with  Minerva  and  Neptune  to  bind  the 
cloud-compeller  himself.  More  than  once  she  provoked  him  to 
blows  ;  and  once  to  worse  than  blows,  —  for  her  lord  and  master 
swung  her  aloft  in  the  clouds,  securing  her  wrists  in  golden  hand- 
cuffs and  hanging  anvils  to  her  feet. 

The  cities  that  the  ox-eyed  goddess  favored  were  Argos,  Sparta, 
and  Mycenae.  To  her  the  peacock  and  the  cow  were  dear,  and 
many  a  grove  and  pasture  rejoiced  her  sacred  herds. 

1  On  the  name  /««*,  see  Commentary. 


Fig.  9.    Hera  of  Argos 


HEKA  OF  THE  VATICAN 


THE  GODS  OF  HEAVEN 


23 


27.  Minerva  (Athene  or  Athena),  the  virgin  goddess.  She  sprang 
from  the  brain  of  Jove,  agleam  with  panoply  of  war,  brandishing  a 
spear  and  with  her  battle-cry  awakening  the  echoes  of  heaven  and 
earth.  She  is  goddess  of  the  lightning  that  leaps  like  a  lance  from 
the  cloud-heavy  sky,  and  hence,  probably,  the  name  Athene}  She 
is  goddess  of  the  storms  and  of  the  rushing  thunderbolt,  and  is, 
therefore,  styled  Pallas.  She  is 
the  goddess  of  the  thundercloud, 
which  is  symbolized  by  her  tas- 
seled  breastplate  of  goatskin,  the 
(Sgis,  whereon  is  fixed  the  head  of 
Medusa,  the  Gorgon,  that  turns  to 
stone  all  beholders.  She  is  also  the 
goddess  of  war,  rejoicing  in  martial  music  and 
protecting  the  war  horse  and  the  warship.  On 
the  other  hand,  she  is  of  a  gentle,  fair,  and 
thoughtful  aspect.  Her  Latin  name  Minerva 
is  connected  with  the  Sanskrit,  Greek,  and 
Latin  words  for  mind.  vShe  is  eternally  a 
virgin,  the  goddess  of  wisdom,  of  skill,  of  con- 
templation, of  spinning  and  weaving,  of  horti- 
culture and  agriculture.  She  is  protectress  of 
cities,  and  was  specially  worshiped  in  her  own 
Athens,  in  Argos,  in  Sparta,  and  in  Troy.  To 
her  were  sacrificed  oxen  and  cows.  The  olive 
tree,  created  by  her,  was  sacred  to  her,  and  also 
the  owl,  the  cock,  the  serpent,  and  the  crow. 

28.  Mars  (Ares),^  the  war-god,  son  of  Jupiter  and  Juno.  The 
meaning  of  the  name  Ares  is  uncertain ;  the  most  probable  sig- 
nifications are  the  Slayer,  the  Avenger,  the  Cnrse.  The  Roman 
god  of  war.  Mars,  is  the  bright  and  burning  one.  Homer,  in  the 
Iliad,  represents  Ares  as  the  insatiable  warrior  of  the  heroic  age, 
who,  impelled  by  rage  and  lust  of  violence,  exults  in  the  noise 
of  battle,  revels  in  the  horror  of  carnage.  Strife  and  slaughter 
are  the  condition  of  his  existence.  Where  the  fight  is  thickest, 
there  he  rushes  in  without  hesitation,  without  question  as  to  which 

1  I'^or  the  names  Athene  and  Minerva^  see  Commentary.  2  ggg  Commentary. 


Fig.  10.   Athena 
Velletri 


24 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


side  is  right.  In  battle  array  he  is  resplendent,  —  on  his  head 
the  gleaming  helmet  and  floating  plume,  on  his  arm  the  leathern 
shield,  in  his  hand  the  redoubtable  spear  of  bronze.  Well-favored, 
stately,  swift,  unwearied,  puissant,  gigantic,  he  is  still  the  foe  of 
wisdom,  the  scourge  of  mortals.  Usually  he  fights  on  foot,  some- 
times from  a  chariot  drawn  by  four  horses,  —  the  offspring  of  the 

North  Wind  and  a  F"ury.  In  the  fray 
his  sons  attend  him, — Terror,  Trem- 
bling, Panic,  and  Fear,  —  also  his 
sister  Eris,  or  Discord  (the  mother  of 
Strife),  his  daughter  Enyo,  miner  of 
cities,  and  a  retinue  of  bloodthirsty 
demons.  As  typifying  the  chances  of 
war,  Mars  is,  of  course,  not  always 
successful.  In  the  battles  before  Troy, 
Minerva  and  Juno  bring  him  more 
than  once  to  grief  ;  and  when  he  com- 
plains to  Jupiter,  he  is  snubbed  as  a 
renegade  most  hateful  of  all  the  gods.^ 
His  loved  one  and  mistress  is  the  god- 
dess of  beauty  herself.  In  her  arms  the 
warrior  finds  repose.  Their  daughter 
Harmonia  is  the  ancestress  of  the 
unquiet  dynasty  of  Thebes.  The  fa- 
vorite land  of  Mars  was,  according  tO' 
Homer,  the  rough,  northerly  Thrace. 
His  emblems  are  the  spear  and  the 
burning  torch ;  his  chosen  animals 
are  haunters  of  the  batde  field,  —  the  vulture  and  the  dog. 

29.  Vulcan  (Hephaestus),  son  of  Jupiter  and  Juno,  was  the  god 
of  fire,  especially  of  terrestrial  fire,  —  volcanic  eruption,  incen- 
diary flame,  the  glow  of  the  forge  or  the  hearth.  But  as  the  fires 
of  earth  are  derived  from  that  of  heaven,  perhaps  the  name 
HephcBsttis  (burning,  shining,  flaming)  referred  originally  to  the 
marv'elous  brilliance  of  the  lightning.  Vulcan  was  the  blacksmith 
of  the  gods,  tlie  finest  artificer  in  metal  among  them.    His  forge  in 

1  Tliad,  5.  590.   See  also  21,  395. 


Fig.  II.   Ares  Ludovisi 


THE  GODS  OF  HEAVEN 


25 


Fig.  12.    Ares  (Mars) 


Olympus  was  furnished  not  only  with  anvils  and  all  other  implements 
of  the  trade,  but  with  automatic  handmaidens  of  silver  and  gold, 
fashioned  by  Vulcan  himself.  Poets  later  than  Homer  assign  to 
Vulcan  workshops  under  various  volcanic  islands.    From  the  crater 

of  Mount  yEtna  poured 
forth  the  fumes  and 
flames  of  his  smithy. 
He  built  the  dwellings 
of  the  gods  ;  he  made 
the  scepter  of  Jove,  the 
shields  and  spears  of 
the  Olympians,  the  ar- 
rows of  Apollo  and 
Diana,  the  breastplate 
of  Hercules,  the  shield 
of  Achilles. 

He  was  lame  of  gait, 
—  a  figurative  sugges- 
tion, perhaps,  of  the  flickering,  unsteady  nature  of  fire.  According 
to  his  own  story, ^  he  was  born  halt ;  and  his  mother,  chagrined  by 
his  deformity,  cast  him  from  Heaven  out  of  the  sight  of  the  gods. 
Yet,  again,2  he  says  that,  attempting  once  to  save  his  mother 
from  Jupiter's  wrath, 
he  was  caught  by  the 
foot  and  hurled  by  the 
son  of  Cronus  from 
the  heavenly  thresh- 
old:  "'  All  day  I  flew  ; 
and  at  the  set  of  sun 
I  fell  in  Lemnos,  and 
little  life  was  left  in 
me."   Had  he  not  been  ^"^"-  ^3-   The  Forge  of  Vulcan 

lame  before,  he  had  good  reason  to  limp  after  either  of  these 
catastrophes.  He  took  part  in  the  making  of  the  human  race,  and 
in  the  special  creation  of  Pandora.  He  assisted  also  at  the  birth  of 
Minerva,  to  facilitate  which  he  split  Jupiter's  head  open  with  an  ax, 

1  Iliad,  18,  395.  2  Iliad,  i,  390. 


26 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


His  wife,  according  to  the  Iliad  and  Hesiod's  Theogony,  is 
Aglaia,  the  youngest  of  the  Graces;  but  in  the  Odyssey  it  is 
Venus.  He  is  a  glorious,  good-natured  god,  loved  and  honored 
among  men  as  the  founder  of  wise  customs  and  the  patron  of 
artificers ;  on  occasion,  as  a  god  of  healing  and  of  prophecy.  He 
seems  to  have  been,  when  he  chose,  the  cause  of  "  inextinguishable 
laughter  "  to  the  gods,  but  he  was  by  no  means  a  fool.  The  famous 
god  of  the  strong  arms  could  be  cunning,  even 
vengeful,  when  the  emergency  demanded. 

30.  Apollo,  or  Phoebus  Apollo,  the  son 
of  Jupiter  and  Latona,  was  preeminently 
the  god  of  the  sun.  His  name  Phoebus  sig- 
nifies the  radiant  nature  of  the  sunlight ;  his 
name  Apollo,  perhaps,  the  cruel  and  destruc- 
tive heat  of  noonday.  Soon  after  his  birth, 
Jupiter  would  have  sent  him  to  Delphi  to 
inculcate  righteousness  and  justice  among  the 
Greeks ;  but  the  golden  god  Apollo  chose 
first  to  spend  a  year  in  the  land  of  the 
Hyperboreans,  where  for  six  continuous 
months  of  the  year  there  is  sunshine  and 
spring,  soft  climate,  profusion  of  herbs  and 
flowers,  and  the  very  ecstasy  of  life.  Dur- 
ing this  delay  the  Delphians  sang  paeans,  — 
hymns  of  praise,  —  and  danced  in  chorus 
about  the  tripod  (or  three-legged  stool), 
where  the  expectant  priestess  of  Apollo  had 
taken  her  seat.  At  last,  when  the  year  was 
warm,  came  the  god  in  his  chariot  drawn  by  swans,  —  heralded  by 
songs  of  springtide,  of  nightingales  and  swallows  and  crickets. 
Then  the  crj'stal  fount  of  Castalia  and  the  stream  Cephissus  over- 
flowed their  bounds,  and  mankind  made  grateful  offerings  to  the 
god.  But  his  advent  was  not  altogether  peaceful.  An  enormous 
serpent,  Python,  had  crept  forth  from  the  slime  with  which,  after 
the  flood,  the  Earth  was  covered ;  and  in  the  caves  of  Mount 
Parnassus  this  terror  of  the  people  lurked.  Him  Apollo  encoun- 
tered and  after  fearful  combat  slew,  with  arrows,  weapons  which 


Fig.  14.    Apollo  in 
THE  Vatican 


THE  GODS  OF  HEAVEN 


27 


the  god  of  the  silver  bow  had  not  before  used  against  any  but  feeble 
animals,  —  hares,  wild  goats,  and  such  game.  In  commemoration 
of  this  illustrious  conquest,  he  instituted  the  Pythian  games,  in 
which  the  victor  in  feats  of  strength,  swiftness  of  foot,  or  in  the 
chariot  race,  should  be  crowned  with  a  wreath  of  beech  leaves. 
Apollo  brought  not  only  the  warm  spring  and  summer,  but  also 
the  blessings  of  the  harvest.  He  warded  off  the  dangers  and  diseases 
of  summer  and  autumn  ; 
and  he  healed  the  sick.  He 
was  patron  of  music  and  of 
poetry.  Through  his  oracle 
at  Delphi,  on  the  slopes  of 
Parnassus  in  Phocis,  the 
Pythian  god  made  known 
the  future  to  those  who 
consulted  him.  He  was  a 
founder  of  cities,  a  promoter 
of  colonization,  a  giver  of 
good  laws,  the  ideal  of  fair 
and  manly  youth, — a  pure 
and  just  god,  requiring  clean 
hands  and  pure  hearts  of 
those  that  worshiped  him. 
But  though  a  god  of  life 
and  peace,  the  far-darter 
did  not  shun  the  weapons 
of  war.  When  presump- 
tion was  to  be  punished,  or 
wrong  righted,  he  could  bend  his  bow  and  slay  with  the  arrows  of 
his  sunlight.  As  in  the  days  of  his  youth  he  slew  the  Python,  so,  also, 
he  slew  the  froward  Tityus,  and  so  the  children  of  Niobe.  While 
Phoebus  Apollo  is  the  Olympian  divinity  of  the  sun,  fraught  with 
light  and  healing,  spiritual,  creative,  and  prophetic,  he  must  not 
be  confounded  with  a  god  of  the  older  dynasty,  Helios  (offspring 
of  Hyperion,  Titanic  deity  of  light),  who  represented  the  sun  in 
its  daily  and  yearly  course,  in  its  physical  rather  than  spiritual  man- 
ifestation.   The  bow  of  Apollo  was  bound  with  laurel  in  memory 


Fig.  15.   Apollo  Belvedere 


28  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

of  Daphne,  whom  he  loved.    To   him  were   sacred,  also,   many 
creatures,  —  the  wolf,  the  roe,  the  mouse,  the  he-goat,  the  ram, 
the  dolphin,  and  the  swan.^ 
31.  Shelley's  Hymn  of  Apollo. 

The  sleepless  Hours  who  watch  me  as  I  lie, 

Curtained  with  star-inwoven  tapestries, 
From  the  broad  moonlight  of  the  sky, 

Fanning  the  busy  dreams  from  my  dim  eyes,  — - 
Waken  me  when  their  mother,  the  gray  Dawn, 
Tells  them  that  dreams  and  that  the  moon  is  gone. 

i'hen  I  arise,  and  climbing  Heaven's  blue  dome, 

^^^^^*^^3v  ^  walk  over  the  mountains  and  the  waves, 

0~-^!^^^'^  Leaving  my  robe  upon  the  ocean  foam ; 

f'^^^^^^B  ^y  footsteps  pave  the  clouds  with  fire  ;  the 

g.^  ^        \T  caves 

^  Are  filled  with  my  bright  presence,  and  the  air 

.  f  Leaves  the  green  earth  to  my  embraces  bare. 

l^^i^'    ^?'^^'^^i  ^^-\        The  sunbeams  are  my  shafts,  with  which  I  kill 
^^^      Sr      I        ^^.  \  Deceit,  that  loves  the  night  and  fears  the  day  ; 

I  Qf  |.  ;  All  men  who  do  or  even  imagine  ill 

■'  Fly  me,  and  from  the  glory  of  my  ray 

l-'ici.  1 6.    Apullo  Good  minds  and  open  actions  take  new  might, 

Until  diminished  by  the  reign  of  night. 

I  feed  the  clouds,  the  rainbows,  and  the  flowers 
With  their  ethereal  colors ;  the  moon's  globe 

And  the  pure  stars  in  their  eternal  bowers 
Are  cinctured  with  my  power  as  with  a  robe ; 

Whatever  lamps  on  Earth  or  Heaven  may  shine, 

Are  portions  of  one  power,  which  is  mine. 

I  stand  at  noon  upon  the  peak  of  Heaven, 

Then  with  unwilling  steps  I  wander  down 
Into  the  clouds  of  the  Atlantic  even ; 

For  grief  that  I  depart  they  weep  and  frown  : 
What  look  is  more  delightful  than  the  smile 
With  which  I  soothe  them  from  the  western  isle  ? 

1  On  the  birth  of  Apollo,  his  adventures,  names,  festivals,  oracles,  and  his  place  in  litera- 
ture and  art,  see  Commentary.    For  other  particulars,  see  sections  on  Myths  of  Apollo. 


THE  GODS  OF  HEAVEN 


29 


I  am  the  eye  with  which  the  universe 

Beholds  itself  and  knows  itself  divine ; 
All  harmony  of  instrument  or  verse, 

All  prophecy,  all  medicine,  are  mine. 
All  light  of  art  or  nature ;  —  to  my  song. 
Victory  and  praise  in  their  own  right  belong. 

32.  Diana  (Artemis),  twin  sister  of  Apollo,  was  born  on  Mount 
Cynthus  in  the  island  of  Delos.  Latona,  the  future  mother  of 
Diana  and  Apollo,  flying 


from  the  wrath  of  Juno, 
had  besought,  one  after 
another,  the  islands  of  the 
yEgean  to  afford  her  a 
place  of  rest ;  but  they 
feared  too  much  the  potent 
queen  of  heaven.  Delos 
alone  consented  to  become 
the  birthplace  of  the  future 
deities.  This  isle  was  then 
floating  and  unstable  ;  but 
on  Latona's  arrival,  Jupiter 
fastened  it  with  adaman- 
tine chains  to  the  bottom 
of  the  sea,  that  it  might  be 
a  secure  resting-place  for 
his  beloved.  The  daughter 
of  Latona  is,  as  her  name 
Artemis  indicates,  a  virgin 
goddess,  the  ideal  of  mod- 
esty, grace,  and  maidenly  vigor.  She  is  associated  with  her  brothei, 
the  prince  of  archery,  in  nearly  all  his  adventures,  and  in  attributes 
she  is  his  feminine  counterpart.  As  he  is  identified  with  sunlight, 
so  is  she,  his  fair-tressed  sister,  with  the  chaste  brilliance  of  the 
moon.  Its  slender  arc  is  her  bow ;  its  beams  are  her  arrows  with 
which  she  sends  upon  womankind  a  speedy  and  painless  death. 
In  her  prerogative  of  moon-goddess  she  is  frequently  identified 
with  Selene,  daughter  of  Hyperion,  just  as  Apollo  is  with  Helios, 


Fig.  17.    Diana.    After  Correggio 


30 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Despising  the  weakness  of  love,  Diana  imposed  upon  her  nymphs 
vows  of  perpetual  maidenhood,  any  violation  of  which  she  was 
swift  and  severe  to  punish.  Graceful  in  .form  and  free  of  move- 
ment, equipped  for  the  chase,  and  surrounded  by  a  bevy  of  fair 
companions,  the  swift-rushing  goddess  was  wont  to  scour  hill, 
valley,  forest,  and  plain.  She  was,  however,  not  only  huntress, 
but  guardian,  of  wild  beasts,  —  mistress  withal  of  horses  and  kine 

and  other  domestic  brutes.  She 
ruled  marsh  and  mountain  ;  her 
gleaming  arrows  smote  sea  as 
well  as  land.  Springs  and  wood- 
land brooks  she  favored,  for  in 
them  she  and  her  attendants 
were  accustomed  to  bathe.  She 
blessed  with  verdure  the  mead- 
ows and  arable  lands,  and  from 
them  obtained  a  meed  ot  thanks. 
When  weary  of  the  chase  she 
turned  to  music  and  dancing ; 
for  the  lyre  and  flute  and  song 
were  dear  to  her.  Muses,  Graces, 
nymphs,  and  the  fair  goddesses 
themselves  thronged  the  rites  of 
the  chorus-leading  queen.  But 
ordinarily  a  woodland  chapel  or 
a  rustic  altar  sufficed  for  her 
worship.  There  the  hunter  laid 
his  offering  —  antlers,  skin,  or 
edible  portions  of  the  deer  that  Artemis  of  the  golden  arrows  had 
herself  vouchsafed  him.  The  holy  maid,  however,  though  naturally 
gracious,  gentle,  and  a  healer  of  ills,  was,  like  her  brother,  quick  to 
resent  injury  to  her  sacred  herds  or  insult  to  herself.  To  this  stern 
temper  Agamemnon,  Orion,  and  Niobe  bore  regretful  testimony. 
They  found  that  the  "fair-crowned  queen  of  the  echoing  chase," 
though  blithe  and  gracious,  was  by  no  means  a  frivolous  personage. 
Diana  was  mistress  of  the  brute  creation,  protectress  of  youth, 
patron  of  temperance  in  all  things,  guardian  of  civil  right.    The 


Fig.  i8. 


Diana  (Artemis)  of 
Versailles 


THE  GODS  OF  HEAVEN 


31 


cypress  tree  was  sacred  to  her ;  and  her  favorites  were  the  bear, 
the  boar,  the  dog,  the  goat,  and  specially  the  hind. 
33.  Jonson's  Hymn  to  Cynthia  (Diana). 

Queen  and  Huntress,  chaste  and  fair, 

Now  the  sun  is  laid  to  sleep, 
Seated  in  thy  silver  chair 

State  in  wonted  manner  keep : 
Hesperus  entreats  thy  light. 
Goddess  excellently  bright. 

Earth,  let  not  thy  envious  shade 

Dare  itself  to  interpose  ; 
Cynthia's  shining  orb  was  made 

Heaven  to  clear  when  day  did  close  : 
Bless  us  then  with  wished  sight, 
Goddess  excellently  bright. 


Lay  thy  bow  of  pearl  apart, 
And  thy  crystal-shining  quiver ; 

Give  unto  the  flying  hart 
Space  to  breathe,  how  short  soever : 
Thou  that  mak'st  a  day  of  night. 
Goddess  excellently  bright.^    • 


Fig.  19.   Artemis 


34.  Venus  (Aphrodite),  goddess  of  love  and  beauty,  was,  accord- 
ing to  the  more  ancient  Greek  conception,  a  daughter  of  Jupiter 
and  Dione  ;  ^  but  Hesiod  .says  that  she  arose  from  the  foam  of  the 
sea  at  the  time  of  the  wounding  of  Uranus,  and  therefore  was  called, 
by  the  Greeks,  Aphrodite,  tJie  foam-born?  Wafted  by  the  west 
wind,  and  borne  upon  the  surge,  she  won  first  the  island  of  Cythera ; 
thence,  like  a  dream,  she  passed  to  Cyprus,  where  the  grace  and 
blossom  of  her  beauty  conquered  every  heart.  Everywhere,  at  the 
touch  of  her  feet  the.  herbage  quivered  into  flower.  The  Hours 
and  Graces  surrounded  her,  twining  odorous  garlands  and  weaving 
robes  for  her  that  reflected  the  hues  and  breathed  the  perfume 
of  crocus  and  hyacinth,  violet,  rose,  lily,  and  narcissus.  To  her 
influence  is  ascribed  the  fmitfulness  of  the  animal  and  of  the  vege- 
table creation.    She  is  goddess  of  gardens  and  flowers,  of  the  rose, 

1  From  Cynthia's  Revels.  2  Hiad,  5,  370,  etc.  ^  A  popular  etymology. 


32  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

the  myrtle,  and  the  linden.  The  heaths  and  slumberous  vales, 
pleasant  with  spring  and  vernal  breezes,  are  hers.  In  her  broidered 
girdle  lurk  "  love  and  desire,  and  loving  converse  that  steals  the 
wits  even  of  the  wise."  For  she  is  the  mistress  of  feminine  charm 
and  beauty,  the  golden,  sweetly  smiling  Aphrodite,  who  rules  the 
hearts  of  men.  She  lends  to  mortals  seductive  form  and  fascina- 
tion. To  a  few,  indeed,  her  favor  is  a  blessing  ;  but  to  many  her 
gifts  are  treacherous,  destructive  of  peace.  Her  various  influence 
is  exemplified  in  the  stories  of  Pygmalion  and  Adonis,  Paris  and 
iEneas,  Helen,  Ariadne,  Psyche,  Procris,  Pasiphae,  and  Phaedra. 
Her  power  extended  over  sea  as  well  as  land,  and  her  temples 
rose  from  many  a  shore.  On  the  waters  swan  and  dolphin  were 
beloved  of  her ;  in  air,  the  sparrow  and  the  dove.  She  was  usually 
attended  by  her  winged  son  Cupid,  of  whom  much  is  to  be  told. 
Especially  dear  to  her  were  Cyprus,  Cnidos,  Paphos,  Cythera, 
Abydos,  Mount  Eryx,  and  the  city  of  Corinth. 

35.  The  '^  Venus  of  Milo."  Of  artistic  conceptions  of  Aphro- 
dite, the  most  famous  are  the  statues  called  the  Venus  of  Melos 
and  the  Venus  of  the  Medici. ^  A  comparison  of  the  two  concep- 
tions is  instituted  in  the  following  poem.^  The  worshiper  apos- 
trophizes the  Venus  of  Melos,  that  "'  inner  beauty  of  the  world," 
whose  tranquil  smile  he  finds  more  fair  than  "The  Medicean's 
sly  and  ser\'ile  grace  "  : 

From  our  low  world  no  gods  have  taken  wing ; 

Even  now  upon  our  hills  the  twain  are  wandering  :  ^ 

The  Medicean's  sly  and  servile  grace, 

And  the  immortal  beauty  of  thy  face. 

One  is  the  spirit  of  all  short-lived  love 

And  outward,  earthly  loveliness  : 

The  tremulous  rosy  morn  is  her  mouth's  smile, 

The  sky,  her  laughing  azure  eyes  above ; 

And,  waiting  for  caress. 

Lie  bare  the  soft  hill-slopes,  the  while 

1  F'or  Venus  in  poetry  and  art,  see  Commentar)'. 

2  From  the  Venus  of  Milo,  by  E.  R.  Sill,  formerly  professor  of  English  Literature  in  the 
University  of  California. 

8  The  references  are  to  the  Berkeley  Hills,  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco,  and  the  glimpses 
of  the  Pacific. 


VENUS  OF  MELOS 


The  gods  of  heaven  33 

Her  thrilling  voice  is  heard 

In  song  of  wind  and  wave,  and  every  flitting  bird. 

Not  plainly,  never  quite  herself  she  shows : 

Just  a  swift  glance  of  her  illumined  smile 

Along  the  landscape  goes  ; 

Just  a  soft  hint  of  singing,  to  beguile 

A  man  from  all  his  toil ; 

Some  vanished  gleam  of  beckoning  arm,  to  spoil 

A  morning's  task  with  longing,  wild  and  vain. 

Then  if  across  the  parching  plain 

He  seek  her,  she  with  passion  burns 

His  heart  to  fever,  and  he  hears 

The  west  wind's  mocking  laughter  when  he  turns, 

Shivering  in  mist  of  ocean's  sullen  tears. 

It  is  the  Medicean  :  well  I  know 

The  arts  her  ancient  subtlety  will  show,  — 

The  stubble  field  she  turns  to  ruddy  gold ; 

The  empty  distance  she  will  fold 

In  purple  gauze ;  the  warm  glow  she  has  kissed 

Along  the  chilling  mist : 

Cheating  and  cheated  love  that  grows  to  hate 

And  ever  deeper  loathing,  soon  or  late. 

Thou,  too,  O  fairer  spirit,  walkest  here 

Upon  the  lifted  hills  : 

Wherever  that  still  thought  within  the  breast 

The  inner  beauty  of  the  world  hath  moved ; 

In  starlight  that  the  dome  of  evening  fills; 

On  endless  waters  rounding  to  the  west : 

For  them  who  thro'  that  beauty's  veil  have  loved 

The  soul  of  all  things  beautiful  the  best. 

For  lying  broad  awake,  long  ere  the  dawn. 

Staring  against  the  dark,  the  blank  of  space 

Opens  immeasurably,  and  thy  face 

Wavers  and  glimmers  there  and  is  withdrawn. 

And  many  days,  when  all  one's  work  is  vain. 

And  life  goes  stretching  on,  a  waste  gray  plain. 

With  even  the  short  mirage  of  morning  gone. 

No  cool  breath  anywhere,  no  shadow  nigh 

Where  a  weary  man  might  lay  him  down  and  die, 

Lo !    thou  art  there  before  me  suddenly. 

With  shade  as  if  a  summer  cloud  did  pass. 

And  spray  of  fountains  <vhispering  to  the  grass. 


34 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Oh,  save  me  from  the  haste  and  noise  and  heat 

That  spoil  life's  music  sweet : 

And  from  that  lesser  Aphrodite  there  — 

Even  now  she  stands 

Close  as  I  turn,  and  O  my  soul,  how  fair ! 

36.  Mercury  (Hermes),  born  in  a  cave  of  Mount  Cyllene  in 
Arcadia,  was  the  son  of  Jupiter  and  Maia  (the  daughter  of  Atlas). 
According  to  conjecture,  his  name  Hermes  means  the  Hastetier. 

Mercury,  swift  as  the 
wind,  was  the  servant 
and  herald  of  Jupiter 
and  the  other  gods. 
On  his  ankles  (in  plas- 
tic art),  and  his  low- 
crowned,  broad-brimmed 
petasns,  or  hat,  were 
wings.  As  messenger 
of  Heaven,  he  bore 
a  wand  {caducc2is)  of 
wood  or  of  gold,  twined 
with  snakes  and  sur- 
mounted by  wings,  and 
possessed  of  magical 
powers  over  sleeping, 
waking,  and  dreams. 
He  was  beautiful  and 
ever  in  the  prime  of 
youthful  vigor.  To  a  voice  sweet-toned  and  powerful,  he  added 
the  persuasiveness  of  eloquence.  But  his  skill  was  not  confined 
to  speech  ;  he  was  also  the  first  of  inventors  —  to  him  are  ascribed 
the  lyre  and  the  flute.  He  was  the  forerunner,  too,  of  mathemati- 
cians and  astronomers.  His  agility  and  strength  made  him  easily 
prince  in  athletic  pursuits.  His  cunning  rendered  him  a  dangerous 
foe  ;  he  could  well  play  the  trickster  and  the  thief,  as  Apollo  found 
out  to  his  vexation,  and  Argus,  and  many  another  unfortunate. 
His  methods,  however,  were  not  always  questionable ;  although 
the  patron  of  gamblers  and  the  god  of  chance,  he,  at  the  same 


P'lo.  20.    Hermes  Psychoi'ompos 


THE  GODS  OF  HEAVEN  35 

time,  was  the  furtherer  of  lawful  industry  and  of  commerce  by  land 
and  sea.  The  gravest  function  of  the  Messenger  was  to  conduct 
the  souls  of  the  dead,  "that  gibber  like  bats  as  they  fare,  down  the 
dank  ways,  past  the  streams  of  Oceanus,  past  the  gates  of  the  sun 
and  the  land  of  dreams,  to  the  mead  of  asphodel  in  the  dark  realm 
of  Hades,  where  dwell  the  souls,  the  phantoms  of  men  outworn."  ^ 

37.  Vesta  (Hestia),  goddess  of  the  hearth,  public  and  private, 
was  the  first-born  child  of  Cronus  and  Rhea  and,  accordingly,  the 
elder  sister  of  Jupiter,  Juno,  Neptune,  Pluto,  and  Ceres,  Vesta 
was  an  old  maid  by  choice.  Averse  to  Venus  and  all  her  ways, 
she  scorned  the  flattering  advances  of  both  Neptune  and  Apollo, 
and  resolved  to  remain  single.  Whereupon  Jupiter  gave  her  to 
sit  in  the  middle  of  his  palace,  to  receive  in  Olympus  the  choicest 
morsels  of  the  feast,  and,  in  the  temples  of  the  gods  on  earth, 
reverence  as  the  oldest  and  worthiest  of  Olympian  divinities.  As 
goddess  of  the  burning  hearth,  Vesta  is  the  divinity  of  the  home  : 
of  settled,  in  opposition  to  nomadic,  habits  of  life.  She  was  wor- 
shiped first  of  the  gods  at  every  feast.  Before  her  shrine  in 
city  and  state  the  holy  flame  was  religiously  cherished.  From  her 
altars  those  of  the  other  gods  obtained  their  fires.  No  new  colony, 
no  new  home,  was  duly  consecrated  till  on  its  central  hearth  there 
glowed  coals  from  her  ancestral  hearth.  In  her  temple  at  Rome  a 
sacred  fire,  tended  by  six  virgin  priestesses  called  Vestals,  was 
kept  religiously  aflame.  As  the  safety  of  the  city  was  held  to  be 
connected  with  its  conservation,  any  negligence,  by  which  it  might 
go  out,  was  severely  punished.  Whenever  the  fire  did  die,  it  was 
rekindled  from  the  rays  of  the  sun. 

38.  Of  the  Lesser  Divinities  of  Heaven  the  most  worthy  of 
mention  are  : 

I.  Cupid  {Eros),  small  but  mighty  god  of  love,  the  son  of 
Venus  and  her  constant  companion.  He  was  often  represented 
with  eyes  covered  because  of  the  blindness  of  his  actions.  With 
his  bow  and  arrows,  he  shot  the  darts  of  desire  into  the  bosoms  of 
gods  and  men.  Another  deity  named  Anteros,  reputed  the  brother 
of  Eros,  was  sometimes  represented  as  the  avenger  of  slighted 
love,  and  sometimes  as  the  symbol  of  reciprocal  affection,   Venus 

1  Lang,  Odyssey,  24,  i  ;  adapted. 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


was  also  attended  at  times  by  another  brother  of  Eros,  Himeros,  or 
Longing,  and  by  Hymen,  a  beautiful  youth  of  divine  descent,  the 

personification  of  the  wedding  feast 
./:3r^  and  leader    of  the  nuptial  chorus.    Of 

Tj-os  the  poet  Gosse  writes  : 

Within  a  forest,  as  I  strayed 
Far  down  a  somber  autumn  glade, 
I  found  the  god  of  love ; 

His  bow  and  arrows  cast  aside, 
His  lovely  arms  extended  wide, 
A  depth  of  leaves  above, 
Beneath  o'erarching  boughs  he  made 
A  place  for  sleep  in  russet  shade. 

His  lips,  more  red  than  any  rose, 

Were  like  a  flower  that  overflows 

With  honey  pure  and  sweet ; 

And  clustering  round  that  holy  mouth, 
The  golden  bees  in  eager  drouth 
Plied  busy  wings  and  feet ; 
They  knew,  what  every  lover  knows, 
There's  no  such  honey-bloom  that  blows.^ 

2.  Hebe,  daughter  of  Jupiter  and 
Juno,  goddess  of  youth  and  cupbearer 
to  the  gods.  According  to  one  story,  she  resigned  that  office  on 
becoming  the  wife  of  Hercules.  According  to  another,  Hebe  was 
dismissed  from  her  position  in  consequence  of  a  fall  which  she 
met  with  one  day  when  in  attendance  on  the  gods.  Her  successor 
was  Ganymede,  a  Trojan  boy  whom  Jupiter,  in  the  disguise  of  an 
eagle,  seized  and  carried  off  from  the  midst  of  his  playfellows  on 
Mount  Ida,  bore  up  to  Heaven,  and  installed  in  the  vacant  place. 

3.  The  Graces,  daughters  of  Jove  by  Eurynome,  daughter  of 
Oceanus.  They  were  goddesses  presiding  over  the  banquet,  the 
dance,  all  social  pleasures,  and  polite  accomplishments.  They  were 
three  in  number,  —  Euphrosyne,  Aglaia,  and  Thalia,  Spenser  de- 
scribes the  office  of  the  Graces  thus  : 


Fig.  21.    Eros 


1  Eros,  by  Edmund  Gosse.    For  verses  on  the  blindness  of  Cupid,  sec  Lyly's  Cupid  and 
Campaspe  in  Commentary. 


THE  GODS  OF  HEAVEN  t^-j 

These  three  on  men  all  gracious  gifts  bestow 
Which  deck  the  body  or  adorn  the  mind, 
To  make  them  lovely  or  well-favored  show ; 
As  comely  carriage,  entertainment  kind. 
Sweet  semblance,  friendly  offices  that  bind, 
And  all  the  complements  of  courtesy ; 
They  teach  us  how  to  each  degree  and  kind 
We  should  ourselves  demean,  to  low,  to  high, 
To  friends,  to  foes  ;  which  skill  men  call  civility. 

4.    The  Muses,  daughters  of  Jupiter  and  Mnemosyne  (Memory). 
They  presided  over  song  and  prompted  the  memory.    They  are 


Fig.  22.    Rape  ok  Ganymede 


Fig.  23.    Polyhymnia 


ordinarily  cited  as  nine  in  number ;  and  to  each  of  them  was 
assigned  patronage  in  some  department  of  hterature,  art,  or 
science.  Calhope  was  the  muse  of  epic  poetry,  CHo  of  history, 
Euterpe  of  lyric  poetry,  Melpomene  of  tragedy,  Terpsichore  of 
choral  dance  and  song,  Erato  of  love  poetry,  Polyhymnia  of  sacred 
poetry,  Urania  of  astronomy,  Thalia  of  comedy. 


38  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

5.  Themis,  one  of  the  Titans,  a  daughter  of  Uranus.  She 
sat,  as  goddess  of  justice,  beside  Jupiter  on  his  throne.  She  was 
beloved  of  the  father  of  gods  and  men,  and  bore  him  the  Hours, 
goddesses  who  regulated  the  seasons,  and  the  Fates, 

6.  The  Fates,  three  in  number,  —  Clotho,  Lachesis,  and  Atropos. 
Their  office  was  to  spin  the  thread  of  human  destiny,  and  they  were 

provided  with  shears 
with  which  they  cut  it 

hen  they  pleased.^ 
According  to    Hesiod, 

were  daughters  of 

7.  Nemesis,  daughter 
of  Night.  She  represented 
the  righteous  anger  and 
vengeance  of  the  gods, 
particularly  toward  the 
proud,  the  insolent,  and 
breakers  of  the  law. 

8.  Aiscidapius,  son 
of  Apollo.  By  his  skill 
in  medicine  he  restored 
the  dead  to  life.  Being 
killed  by  the  lightning 
of  Jove,  he  was  trans- 
lated to  the  ranks  of 
Heaven.  His  function 
was  the  art  of  healing. 

9.  The  Winds,  — 
Boreas,  or  Aquilo,  the 

north  wind  ;  Zephyrus,  or  Favonius,  the  west  ;  Notus,  or  Auster,  the 
south  ;  and  Eurus,  the  east.  The  first  two,  chiefly,  have  been  cele- 
brated by  the  poets,  the  former  as  the  type  of  rudeness,  the  latter  of 
gentleness.  It  is  said  that  Boreas  loved  the  nymph  Orithyia  and 
tried  to  play  the  lover's  part,  but  met  with  poor  success  ;  for  it  was 
hard  for  him  to  breathe  gently,  and  sighing  was  out  of  the  question. 

1  For  description  of  iheir  spinning,  see  translation  of  Catullus,  LX IV,  in  §  191. 


Fig.  24.    The  Three  Fates 
From  the  painting  by  Michelangelo  (?) 


THE  GODS  OF  HEAVEN 


39 


Weary  at  last  of  fruitless  endeavors,  he  acted  out  his  true  character, 
seized  the  maiden  and  bore  her  off.  Their  children  were  Zetes  and 
Calais,  winged  warriors,  who  accompanied  the  Argonautic  expedi- 
tion and  did  good  service  in  an  encounter  with  those  monstrous  birds, 

the  Harpies.  Zephyrus 
was  the  lover  of  Flora 
(Chloris). 

Here,  too,  may  be 
mentioned  ALolus,  the 
king  of  the  winds, 
although  he  is  not 
a  lesser  divinity  of 
Heaven.  His  palace 
was    on    the    precipi- 


FiG.  25.    Boreas 


tous  isle  of  yEolia, 
where,  with  his  six 
sons  and  six  daughters,  he  kept  eternal  carouse.  The  winds,  which 
he  confined  in  a  cavern,  he  let  loose  as  he  saw  fit  or  as  he  was 
bidden  by  superior  deities.  He  is  sometimes  called  Hippotades.^ 
10.  Helios,  Selene,  and  Eos,  children  of  the  Titan  Hyperion. 
Helios  and  Selene 
were  the  more  an- 
cient Greek  divinities 
of  Sun  and  Moon  re- 
spectively. Helios,  the 
charioteer  of  the  sun, 
is,  as  has  been  already 
said,  frequently  identi- 
fied with  his  successor, 
Apollo.  The  attributes 
and  adventures  of 
Selene  were  merged 
in  those  of  the  more  modern  Diana.  Eos,  or,  in  Latin  nomencla- 
ture, Aurora,  the  rosy-fingered  goddess  of  the  Morn,  was  mother 
of  the  stars  and  of  the  morning  and  evening  breezes.  Saffron-robed 
she  rises  from  the  streams  of  Ocean,  to  bring  light  to  gods  and  men. 

1  See  Commentary. 


Fig.  26.   Zephyros 


40 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


1 1 .  Phosphor,  the  morning-star,  the  star  of  Venus,  son  of  Aurora 
and  the  hunter  Cephalus.  Hesper,  the  evening-star,  was  some- 
times identified  with  Phos- 
phor. He  was  king  of  the 
Western  Land,  and,  say  some, 
father  of  the  Hesperides,  who 
guarded  the  golden  apples 
of  the  sunset. 

The    Spirit   in    Milton's 
Comus  tells  of 


.  .  .  the  gardens  fair 
Of  Hesperus,  and  his  daughters 

three 
That  sing  about  the  golden  tree. 
Along   the    crisped    shades    and 

bowers 
Revels    the    spruce    and   jocund 

Spring; 
The  Graces  and  the  rosy-bosomed 

Hours 


KiG.  27.    Boreas  carrying  off  Orithyia 


Thither  all  their  bounties  bring. 
There  eternal  Summer  dwells, 
And  west  winds  with  musky  wing 
About  the  cedarn  alleys  fling 
Nard  and  cassia's  balmy  smells. 
Iris  there  with  humid  bow 
Waters  the  odorous  banks,  that  blow 
Flowers  of  more  mingled  hue 
Than  her  purfled  scarf  can  shew. 

And  Tennyson  taking  the  lines  as  a  text  has  written  the  melodious 
and  mystic  song  of  the  Hesperides,  beginning  — 

The  golden  apple,  the  golden  apple,  the  hallowed  fruit, 

Guard  it  well,  guard  it  warily. 

Singing  airily. 

Standing  about  the  charmed  root. 

Round  about  all  is  mute. 

As  the  snowfield  on  the  mountain-peaks. 

As  the  sandfield  at  the  mountain-foot. 

Crocodiles  in  briny  creeks 


THE  GODS  OF  HEAVEN  4X 

Sleep  and  stir  not :  all  is  mute. 

If  ye  sing  not,  if  ye  make  false  measure, 

We  shall  lose  eternal  pleasure, 

Worth  eternal  want  of  rest. 

Laugh  not  loudly  :  watch  the  treasure 

Of  the  wisdom  of  the  West. 

Readers  of  this  poem  will  notice  that  Tennyson  follows  the 
tradition  by  which  a  sleepless  dragon  is  introduced  among  the 
guardians  of  the  Hesperian  fruit.  Still  other  versions  substitute 
for  Hesperus,  the  Titan  Atlas. 

12.  Various  Other  Personifications.  The  constellation  Orion, 
whose  stor)'  will  be  narrated ;  Victoria  (Nike),  the  goddess  of 
Victory ;  Discors  (Eris),  the  goddess  of  Strife  ;  and  Iris,  goddess 
of  the  rainbow,  who  is  represented  frequently  as  a  messenger  of 
the  gods. 


Fig.  28.    Iris  carrying  Child 


CHAPTER  III 


THE  GODS  OF  EARTH  ^ 

39.  Conception  of  the  World.    The  Greek  poets  believed  the 
earth  to  be  flat  and  circular.    In  their  opinion  their  own  country 

occupied    the    middle 


'Ik 


of  it,  and  the  central 
point  was  either  Mount 
Olympus,  the  abode  of 
the  gods,  or  Delphi, 
famous  for  its  oracle. 
The  circular  disk  of  the 
earth  was  crossed  from 
west  to  east  and  divided 
into  two  equal  parts  by 
the  Sea,  as  they  called 
the  Mediterranean  and 
its  continuation  the 
Euxine,  the  only  seas 
with  which  they  were 
acquainted.  Around 
the  earth  flowed  River 
Ocean,  from  south  to 
north  on  the  western 
side,  in  a  contrary  direc- 
tion on  the  eastern.  It 
flowed  in  a  steady,  equa- 
ble current,  unvexed  by 
storm  or  tempest.  The 
sea  and  all  the  rivers  on  earth  received  their  waters  from  it. 

The   northern  portion  of  the  earth  was  inhabited  by  the  Hy- 
perboreans, dwelling  in  bliss  and  everlasting  spring  beyond  the 

1  For  references  to  poetry  and  works  of  art,  see  corresponding  sections  in  Commentary. 

42 


Fig.  29.    Demeter  of  Knidos 


THE  GODS  OF  EARTH 


43 


mountains  whose  caverns  sent  forth  the  piercing  blasts  of  the 
north  wind.  Their  country  was  inaccessible  by  land  or  sea.  They 
lived  exempt  from  disease  or  old  age,  from  toils  and  warfare.  "  I 
come"  sings  one  of  them/  — 

I  come  from  a  land  in  the  sun-bright  deep, 

Where  golden  gardens  glow, 
Where  the  winds  of  the  north,  becalmed  in  sleep, 

Their  conch-shells  never  blow. 

On  the  south  side  of  the  earth,  close  to  the  stream  of  Ocean, 
dwelt  the  Ethiopians,  whom  the  gods  held  in  such  favor  that  they 
left  at  times  the  Olympian  abodes 
to  partake  of  the  /Ethiopian  sacri- 
fices and  banquets.  On  the  west- 
ern margin  of  the  earth,  by  the 
stream  of  Ocean,  lay  the  Elysian 
Plain,  where  certain  mortals  en- 
joyed an  immortality  of  bliss. 

The  Dawn,  the  Sun,  and  the 
Moon  were  supposed  to  rise  out  of 
Ocean  on  the  eastern  side  and  to 
drive  through  the  air,  giving  light 
to  gods  and  men.  The  stars,  also, 
except  those  forming  the  Wain  or 
Bear  and  others  near  them,  rose 
out  of  and  sank  into  the  stream  ;3^:f^i^s$^  \ 
of  Ocean.  There  the  sun-god  ^M^^^  I 
embarked  in  a  winged  boat,  which    pi^w^^^^lr 

ernoart    1^^^^ 


conveyed  him  by  the  northern  part 
of  the  earth  back  to  his  place  of 
rising  in  the  east. 

40.  Ceres  (Demeter),  the  god- 
dess of  sowing  and  reaping,  of 
harvest  festivals,  and  of  agriculture  in  general,  was  sister  of  Jupiter 
and  daughter  of  Cronus  and  Rhea,  She  is  connected  through  her 
daughter  Proserpine,  queen  of  Hades,  with  the  holy  ceremonies  and 

1  According  to  Thomas  Moore's  Song  of  a  Hyperborean. 


;-^^ 


Fig.  30.   Ceres 


44 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


rites  of  death  and  of  the  lower  world.  Of  the  institutions  founded 
or  favored  by  her  the  most  important  were  the  mysteries  celebrated 
at  Eleusis,  concerning  which  we  know  that,  in  the  presence  of  indi- 
viduals initiated  in  the  secret  ritual  and 
perhaps  with  their  cooperation,  scenes 
were  enacted  which  represented  the 
alternation  of  death  and  life  in  nature 
and,  apparently,  forecast  the  resurrec- 
tion and  immortality  of  man.  Sacred 
to  Ceres  and  to  Proserpine  were  golden 
sheaves  of  corn  and  soporific  poppies  ; 
while,  among  animals,  cows,  sheep,  and 
pigs  were  acceptable  to  them. 

41.  Gaea  (Ge),  the  Mother  Earth, 
wife  of  Uranus,  belongs  to  the  older 
order  of  gods ;  so  also,  another  god- 
dess of  the  earth,  Rhea,  the  wife  of 
Cronus  and  mother  of  Jupiter.  In 
Phrygia,  Rhea  became  identified  with 
Cybele,  whose  worship,  as  mother  of 
the  gods,  was  at  a  later  period  intro- 
duced into  Rome.  The  Greek  mother, 
Rhea,  was  attended  by  the  Curetes ;  the 
Phrygian  mother  by  the  Corybantes, 
who  celebrated  her  orgies  with  enthusiastic  din  of  trumpets,  drums, 
and  cymbals.  Cybele  presided  over  mountain  fastnesses  and  forti- 
fied places. 

42.  Bacchus  (Dionysus),  the  god  of  wine,  was  the  son  of  Jupiter 
and  Semele,  daughter  of  Cadmus  of  Thebes.  He  was  especially 
the  god  of  animal  life  and  vegetation.  He  represented  not  only 
the  intoxicating  power  of  wine  but  its  social  and  beneficent  influ- 
ences, and  was  looked  upon  as  a  promoter  of  civilization,  a  law- 
giver, and  a  lover  of  peace.  His  forehead  was  crowned  with  vine 
leaves  or  ivy.  He  rode  upon  the  tiger,  the  panther,  or  the  lynx, 
or  was  drawn  by  them  in  a  car.  His  worshipers  were  Bacchanals, 
or  Bacchantes.  He  was  attended  by  Satyrs  and  Sileni  and  by 
women  called  Maenads,  who,  as  they  danced  and  sang,  waved  in 


THE  GODS  OF  EARTH 


45 


the  air  the  thyrsus,  a  staff  entwined  with  ivy  and  surmounted  by 
a  pine  cone.  Ordinarily,  as  in  the  following  verses  by  Dryden,  the 
convivial  qualities  of  the  god  overshadow  all  the  rest : 

The  praise  of  Bacchus  then  the  sweet  musician  sung, 
Of  Bacchus  ever  fair,  and  ever  young. 
The  jolly  god  in  triumph  comes  ; 
Sound  the  trumpets,  beat  the  drums ; 
Flushed  with  a  purple  grace 
He  shows  his  honest  face  : 
Now  give  the  hautboys  breath  ;  he  comes,  he  comes. 
Bacchus,  ever  fair  and  young, 
Drinking  joys  did  first  ordain  ; 
.    Bacchus'  blessings  are  a  treasure, 
Drinking  is  the  soldier's  pleasure ; 
Rich  the  treasure, 
Sweet  the  pleasure, 
Sweet  is  pleasure  after  pain.^ 

^■^'- 

43.  The  Lesser  Divinities  of  Earth  were  : 

1.  Pan,  son  of  Mercury  and  a  wood-nymph  or 
Dryad.  He  was  the  god  of  woods  and  fields,  of 
flocks  and  shepherds.  He  dwelt  in  caves,  wandered 
on  the  mountains  and  in  valleys,  amused  himself 
with  the  chase,  led  the  dances  of  the  Dryads, 
and  made  love  to  them.  But  his  suit  was  fre- 
quently of  no  avail,  for  though  good-natured  he 
was  not  prepossessing ;  his  hoofs  and  horns  did 
not  enhance  his  comeliness.  He  was  fond  of 
music  and  was  himself  inventor  of  the  syrinx, 
or  shepherd's  pipe,  which  he  played  in  a  masterly 
manner.  Like  other  gods  who  dwelt  in  forests, 
he  was  dreaded  by  those  whose  occupations  caused 
them  to  pass  through  the  woods  by  night ;  for 
gloom  and  loneliness  oppress  and  appall  the  mind. 
unreasonable  fright  was  ascribed  to  Pan  and  called  a  Panic  terror. 

2.  The  NynipJis.    Pan's   partners    in   the    dance,   the    Dryads, 
were  but  one  of  several  classes  of  nymphs.    There  were,  beside 

1  From  Alexander's  Feast. 


Fig. 


Pan  the 


Hunter 


Hence  .sudden 


46 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


them,  the  Oreads,  nymphs  of  mountains  and  grottoes ;    and  the 
Water-Nymphs,  who  are  mentioned  in  later  sections. 

3.  TJie  Satyrs,  deities  of  the  woods  and  fields.  In  early  art 
they  appear  as  bearded  creatures  with  snub  noses,  goats'  ears,  and 
horses'  tails.  Later  they  resemble  youths,  sometimes  with  sprout- 
ing horns.    The  goat-legged  satyr  is  found  in  Roman  poetry. 


Fig.  -xx.   A  Satyr 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  GODS  OF  THE  UNDERWORLD  ^ 

44.  The  Underworld  was  the  region  of  darkness  inhabited  by 
the  spirits  of  the  dead  and  governed  by  Pluto  (Hades)  and  Proser- 
pina, his  queen.  According  to  the  I  Had,  this  realm  lay  "  beneath 
the  secret  places  of  the  earth."  ^  And  from  the  Odyssey  we  gather 
that  it  is  not  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  but  on  the  under  side  at  the 
limits  of  the  known  world,  across  the  stream  Oceanus,  where  is  a 
waste  shore,  the  land  of  the  Cimmerians,  shrouded  in  mist  and 
cloud,  never  lighted  by  the  sun  "  neither  when  he  climbs  up  the 
starry  heavens  nor  when  again  he  turns  earthward  from  the  firma- 
ment." ^  From  that  land  one  goes  beside  the  stream  till  he  reaches 
the  dank  house  of  Hades.  The  realm  of  darkness  is  bounded  by 
awful  rivers  :  the  Styx,  sacred  even  among  the  gods,  for  by  it  they 
sealed  their  oaths,  and  the  Acheron,  river  of  woe,  —  with  its  trib- 
utaries, Phlegethon,  river  of  fire,  and  Cocytus,  river  of  wailing. 
Hither  past  the  White  Rock,  which  perhaps  symbolizes  the  bleach- 
ing skeletons  of  the  dead,  and  past  the  gates  of  the  sun,  it  is  the 
duty  of  Hermes  (Mercury)  to  conduct  the  outworn  ghosts  of  mor- 
tals. One  of  the  Greek  dramatists,  Sophocles,  tells  us  that  this 
shore  of  death  is  "  down  in  the  darkling  west."  ^  In  later  poems  we 
read  that  Charon,  a  grim  boatman,  received  the  dead  at  the  River 
of  Woe,  and  ferried  them  across,  if  the  money  requisite  for  their 
passage  had  been  placed  in  their  mouths  and  their  bodies  had  been 
duly  buried  in  the  world  above.^  Otherwise  he  left  them  gibbering 
on  the  hither  bank.  The  abode  of  Pluto  is  represented  as  wide-gated 
and  thronged  with  guests.    At  the  gate  Cerberus,  a  three-headed, 

1  For  interpretation  and  illustration,  see  corresponding  sections  of  Commentary. 

2  Iliad,  22,  482  ;  g,  568  ;  20,  61.  ■*  Sophocles,  CEdipus  Rex,  177. 

3  Odyssey,  10,  508;  II,  20;  24,  i.  6  yEneid,  6,  295. 

47 


48 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


THE  GODS  OF  THE  UNDERWORLD  49 

serpent-tailed  dog,  lay  on  guard,  —  friendly  to  the  spirits  enter- 
ing, but  inimical  to  those  who  would  depart.     The  palace  itself 

is    dark    and   gloomy,  ^ ^  _„^,^^ 

set  in  the  midst  of  un-  r                 /                                    J&^^^ff 

canny   fields    haunted  [ 

by  Strange  apparitions.  [;                                                                  I 

The  groves  of  somber  r                                                                   I 

trees  about  the  palace,  ?-                                                               "t 

—  the  meads  of  As-  C                                                                  Jl 

phodel,  barren  or,  at  k^,                         .                                       I 

best,   studded   with  f                                                                  I 

futile  bushes  and  pale-  ^^;;^__           ;                                            "^ 

flowered  weeds,  where  ^§^^!=^V          "                                        i 

wander  the  shades,  —  |s                                                                  '^ 

and  the  woods  along  fe.==^— — ;— — ''^~^^~-—- "  -  =^--^— ---=-— :^-=i3 

the   waste   shore    "  of  f"'^-  35-   Hermes  conductinc:  a  Soul 

,,         ,              ,     .,,  TO  Charon 
tall  poplars  and  willows 

that  shed  their  fruit  before  the  season"  are,  without  any  particular 
discrimination,  celebrated  by  the  poets  as  the  Garden  of  Proserpine. 

Here  life  has  death  for  neighbor, 

And  far  from  eye  or  ear 
Wan  waves  and  wet  winds  labor, 

Weak  ships  and  spirits  steer ; 
They  drive  adrift,  and  whither 
They  wot  not  who  make  thither ; 
But  no  such  winds  blow  hither, 

And  no  such  things  grow  here. 

No  growth  of  moor  or  coppice. 

No  heather-flower  or  vine, 
But  bloomless  buds  of  poppies. 

Green  grapes  of  Proserpine, 
Pale  beds  of  blowing  rushes. 
Where  no  leaf  blooms  or  blushes 
Save  this  whereout  she  crushes 

For  dead  men  deadly  wine. 

Pale,  beyond  porch  and  portal, 

Crowned  with  calm  leaves,  she  stands 


50 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Who  gathers  all  things  mortal 
With  cold  immortal  hands  ; 
Ker  languid  lips  are  sweeter 
Than  love's,  who  fears  to  greet  her, 
To  men  that  mix  and  meet  her 
From  many  times  and  lands. 


Hypnos 


She  waits  for  each  and  other, 
She  waits  for  all  men  born  ; 
Forgets  the  earth  her  mother, 
The  life  of  fruits  and  corn  ; 
And  spring  and  seed  and  swallow 
Take  wing  for  her  and  follow 
Where  summer  song  rings  hollow. 
And  flowers  are  put  to  scorn. 

We  are  not  sure  of  sorrow. 

And  joy  was  never  sure ; 

To-day  will  die  to-morrow  ; 

Time  stoops  to  no  man's  lure ; 
And  love,  grown  faint  and  fretful, 
With  lips  but  half  regretful 
Sighs,  and  with  eyes  forgetful 
Weeps  that  no  loves  endure. 


From  too  much  love  of  living, 
From  hope  and  fear  set  free, 

We  thank  with  brief  thanksgiving 
Whatever  gods  may  be 

That  no  life  lives  forever ; 

That  dead  men  rise  up  never ; 

That  even  the  weariest  river 
Winds  somewhere  safe  to  sea. 

Then  star  nor  sun  shall  waken, 
Nor  any  change  of  light ; 

Nor  sound  of  waters  shaken. 
Nor  any  sound  or  sight ; 

Nor  wintry  leaves  nor  vernal, 

Nor  days  nor  things  diurnal : 

Only  the  sleep  eternal 
In  an  eternal  night. ^ 


'  From  The  Garden  of  Proserpine,  by  A.  C.  Swinburne. 


THE  GODS  OF  THE  UNDERWORLD 


51 


45.  Tartarus  and  the  Elysian  Fields.  With  the  ghosts  of  Hades 
the  hving  might  but  rarely  communicate,  and  only  through  certain 
oracles  of  the  dead,  situate  by  cavernous  spots  and  sheer  abysms, 
deep  and  melancholy  streams,  and  baleful  marshes.  These  naturally 
seemed  to  afford  access  to  the  world  below,  which  with  the  later 
poets,  such  as  Virgil,  comes  to  be  regarded  as  under  the  ground. 
One  of  these  descents  to  the  Underworld  was  near  Taenarum  in 
Laconia ;  another,  near  Cuma3  in  Italy,  was  Lake  Avernus,  so  foul 
in  its  exhalations  that,  as  its  name  portends,  no  bird  could  fly  across 
it.^  Before  the  judges  of  the 
lower  world,  —  Minos,  /Eacus, 
and  Rhadamanthus,  —  the  souls 
of  the  dead  were  brought  to  trial. 
The  condemned  were  assigned  to 
regions  where  all  manner  of  tor- 
ment awaited  them  at  the  hands 
of  monsters  dire,  —  the  fifty- 
headed  Hydra  and  the  avenging 
Furies.  Some  evildoers,  such  as 
the  Titans  of  old,  were  doomed  to 
languish  in  the  gulf  of  Tartarus 
immeasurably  below.  But  the 
souls  of  the  guiltless  passed  to 
the  Elysian  Fields,  where  each 
followed  the  chosen  pursuit  of 


Fig.  37.    A  Fury 


his  former  life  in  a  land  of  spring,  sunlight,  happiness,  and  song. 
And  by  the  Fields  there  flowed  the  river  Lethe,  from  which  the 
souls  of  those  that  were  to  return  to  the  earth  in  other  bodies 
drank  oblivion  of  their  former  lives. 

46.  The  Islands  of  the  Blest.  Homer  mentions,  elsewhere,  an 
Elysium  of  the  western  seas,  which  is  a  happy  land,  "  where  life  is 
easiest  for  men :  no  snow  is  there,  nor  yet  great  storm,  nor  any 
rain ;  but  always  ocean  sendeth  forth  the  breeze  of  the  shrill 
West  to  blow  cool  on  men."  2  Hither  favored  heroes  pass  without 
dying,  and  live  under  the  happy  rule  of  Rhadamanthus.  The 
Elysium  of  Hesiod  and  Pindar  is  likewise  in  the  Western  Ocean, 


1  .lineid,  6. 


Odyssey,  4,  561. 


52  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

on  the  Islands  of  the  Blessed,  the  Fortunate  Isles.  From  this 
dream  of  a  western  Elysium  may  have  sprung  the  legend  of  the 
island  Atlantis.  That  blissful  region  may  have  been  wholly  imag- 
inary. It  is,  however,  not  impossible  that  the  myth  had  its  origin 
in  the  reports  of  storm-driven  mariners  who  had  caught  a  glimpse 
of  occidental  lands.  In  these  Islands  of  the  Blest,  the  Titans, 
released  from  Tartarus  after  many  years,  dwelt  under  the  golden 
sway  of  the  white-haired  Cronus. ^ 

There  was  no  heavy  heat,  no  cold, 
The  dwellers  there  wax  never  old, 

Nor  wither  with  the  waning  time. 
But  each  man  keeps  that  age  he  had 

When  first  he  won  the  fairy  clime. 
The  night  falls  never  from  on  high, 

Nor  ever  burns  the  heat  of  noon ; 
But  such  soft  light  eternally 

Shines,  as  in  silver  dawns  of  June 
Before  the  sun  hath  climbed  the  sky ! 

All  these  their  mirth  and  pleasure  made 

Within  the  plain  Elysian, 

The  fairest  meadow  that  may  be. 
With  all  green  fragrant  trees  for  shade, 

And  every  scented  wind  to  fan. 

And  sweetest  flowers  to  strew  the  lea ; 
The  soft  winds  are  their  servants  fleet 

To  fetch  them  every  fruit  at  will 

And  water  from  the  river  chill ; 
And  every  bird  that  singeth  sweet. 

Throstle,  and  merle,  and  nightingale. 

Brings  blossoms  from  the  dewy  vale, — 
Lily,  and  rose,  and  asphodel,  — 

With  these  doth  each  guest  twine  his  crown 

And  wreathe  his  cup,  and  lay  him  down 
Beside  some  friend  he  loveth  well.^ 

47.  Pluto  (Hades)  was  brother  of  Jupiter.  To  him  fell  the  sov- 
ereignty of  the  lower  world  and  the  shades  of  the  dead.  In  his 
character   of    Hades,    the  viewless,  he   is   hard  and    inexorable. 

1  Hes.  Works  and  Days,  169.  2  From  The  Fortunate  Islands,  by  Andrew  Lang. 


THE  GODS  OF  THE  UNDERWORLD 


53 


By  virtue  of  the  helmet  or  cap  given  him  by  the  Cyclopes,  he 
moved  hither  and  yon,  dark,  unseen,  —  hated  of  mortals.  He  was, 
however,  lord  not  only  of  all  that  descends  to  the  bowels  of  the 
earth,  but  of  all  that  proceeds  from  the  earth  ;  and  in  the  latter 
aspect  he  was  revered  as  Pluto,  or  the  giver  of  wealth.  At  his 
pleasure  he  visited  the  realms  of  day,  —  as  when  he  carried  off 
Proserpina  ;  occasionally  he  journeyed  to  Olympus  ;  but  otherwise 
he  ignored  occurrences  in  the  upper 
world,  nor  did  he  suffer  his  subjects, 
by  returning,  to  find  them  out.  Mor- 
tals, when  they  called  on  his  name, 
beat  the  ground  with  their  hands  and, 
averting  their  faces,  sacrificed  black 
sheep  to  him  and  to  his  queen. 
Among  the  Romans  he  is  known  also 
as  Dis,  Orcus,  and  Tartarus.  But 
Orcus  is  rather  Death,  or  the  Under- 
world, than  ruler  of  the  shades. 

48.  Proserpina  (Persephone)  wasthe 
daughter  of  Ceres  and  Jupiter.  She  was 
queen  of  Hades,  —  a  name  applied  both 
to  the  mler  of  the  shades  and  to  his 
realm.  When  she  is  goddess  of  spring, 
dear  to  mankind,  Proserpina  bears  a 
cornucopia  overflowing  with  flowers, 
and  revisits  the  earth  in  duly  recurring 
season.  But  when  she  is  goddess  of  death,  sitting  beside  Pluto, 
she  directs  the  Furies,  and,  like  her  husband,  is  cruel,  unyield- 
ing, inimical  to  youth  and  life  and  hope.  In  the  story  of  her 
descent  to  Hades  will  be  found  a  further  account  of  her  attri- 
butes and  fortunes. 

49.  The  Lesser  Divinities  of  the  Underworld  were  : 

I.  ^acus,  RhadartiantJius,  and  Minos,  sons  of  Jupiter  and 
judges  of  the  shades  in  the  lower  world.  yEacus  had  been  during 
his  earthly  life  a  righteous  king  of  the  island  of  yEgina.  Minos  had 
been  a  famous  lawgiver  and  king  of  Crete.  The  life  of  Rhadaman- 
thus  was  not  eventful. 


Fig.  38.    Haues 


54 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


2.  The  Furies  {Erinyes  or  Eumenides),  Alecto,  Tisiphone,  and 
Megaera,  born  of  the  blood  of  the  wounded  Uranus.  They  were 
attendants  of  Proserpina.  They  punished  with  the  frenzies  of 
remorse  the  crimes  of  those  who  had  escaped  from  or  defied 
public  justice.  The  heads  of  the  Furies  were  wreathed  with 
serpents. 

3.  Hecate,  a  mysterious  divinity  sometimes  identified  with  Diana 
and  sometimes  with  Proserpina.  As  Diana  represents  the  moonlight 
splendor  of  night,  so  Hecate  represents  its  darkness  and  terrors 
She  haunted  crossroads  and  graveyards,  was  the  goddess  of  sorcery 

and  witchcraft,  and  wandered  by 
night,  seen  only  by  the  dogs  whose 
barking  told  of  her  approach. 

4.  Sleep,  or  Sontnus  {Hypnos), 
and  Death  {Thanatos),  sons  of 
Night.i  They  dwell  in  subterra- 
nean darkness.  The  former  brings 
to  mortals  solace  and  fair  dreams, 
and  can  lull  the  shining  eyes  of 
Jove  himself ;  the  latter  closes 
forever  the  eyes  of  men.  Dreams, 
too,  are  sons  of  Night.^  They  dwell  beside  their  brother  Death, 
along  the  Western  Sea.  Their  abode  has  two  gates,  —  one  of 
ivory,  whence  issue  false  and  flattering  visions ;  the  other  of  horn, 
through  which  true  dreams  and  noble  pass  to  men.^ 

1  Iliad,  14,  231  ;  16,  672. 

2  Odyssey,  24,  12  ;  19,  560.   ^neid,  6,  893.    Ovid,  Metam.  11,  592. 

3  For  genealogical  table,  see  Commentary. 


Fig.  39.  Death,  Sleep,  and  Hermes 
LAYING  A  Body  in  the  Tomb 


CHAPTER  V 


THE  GODS  OF  THE  WATERS^ 

50.  The  Older  Dynasty.  There  were  two  dynasties  of  the  sea. 
The  Older,  which  flourished  during  the  rule  of  Cronus,  was  founded 
by  the  Titans,  Oceatms  and  Tcthys, 
from  whom  sprang  three  thousand 
rivers  and  ocean-nymphs  unnum- 
bered. The  palace  of  Oceanus  was 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  bountiful 
earth,^  surrounded  by  gardens  and 
all  things  fair.  From  ages  immemo- 
rial another  dweller  in  the  glimmer- 
ing caves  of  Ocean  was  Ponhis  (the 
deep  sea  or  the  tvatertvay),  who 
became,  by  Mother  Earth,  father  of 
Nereus.  This  Nereus,  a  genial  old 
man  of  the  sea,  was  distinguished 
for  his  prophetic  gifts,  his  knowl- 
edge, his  love  of  truth  and  justice. 
Taking  to  wife  one  of  the  daughters 
of  Oceanus,  the  nymph  Doris,  he 
was  blessed  with  a  family  of  fifty  fair 
daughters,  the  Nereids?  Of  these 
daughters  the  most  famous  are 
Panope,  Galatea,  Thetis,  and  Amphitrite  ;  the  last  of  whom  gave 
her  hand  to  Neptune  (Poseidon),  brother  of  Jove,  and  thus  united 
the  Older  and  the  Younger  dynasties  of  the  sea. 

51.  Of    the   Younger   Dynasty    of    the    waters    Neptune   and 
Amphitrite   were    the    founders.    Neptune's    palace    was    in    the 

1  For  references  to  poetry  and  works  of  art,  see  corresponding  sections  of  Commentary. 
■-  Iliad,  14,  303.  3  Iliad,  18,  30-50. 

55 


Fig.  40.    PosEn:)ON 


56 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


depths  of  the  sea,  near  yEgas  in 
Euboea ;  but  he  made  his  home 
on  Olympus  when  he  chose.  The 
symbol  of  his  power  was  the 
trident,  or  three-pronged  spear, 
with  which  he  could  shatter  rocks, 
call  forth  or  subdue  storms,  and 
shake  the  shores  of  earth.  He 
created  the  horse  and  was  the 
patron  of  horse  races.  His  own 
steeds  were  brazen-hoofed  and 
golden-maned.  They  drew  his 
chariot  over  the  sea,  which  be- 
came smooth  before  him,  while 
dolphins  and  other  monsters  of 
the  deep  gamboled  about  his 
path.  In  his  honor  black  and 
white  bulls,  white  boars,  and  rams 
were  sacrificed. 

52.  The  Lesser  Divinities  of 
the  Waters  ^  were  : 

1.  Triton,  the  son  of  Nep- 
tune and  Amphitrite,  trumpeter 
of  Ocean.  By  his  blast  on  the 
sea-shell  he  stirred  or  allayed  the 
waves. 

2.  Proteus,  an  attendant  and, 
according  to  certain  traditions,  a 
son  of  Neptune.  Like  Nereus, 
he  was  a  little  old  man  of  the 
sea.  He  possessed  the  prophetic 
gift  and  the  power  of  changing 
his  shape  at  will. 

3.  The  Harpies,  io\i\.cxt2iX\xrQ.%, 
with  heads  of  maidens,  bodies, 
wings,  and  claws  of  birds,   and 


1  For  genealogical  table,  see  Commentary. 


THE  GODS  OF  THE  WATERS 


57 


faces  pale  with  hunger.    They  are  the  offspring  of  Thaumas,  a 
son  of  Pontus  and  Gaea. 

4.  The  uncanny  offspring  of  Phorcys  and  Ceto,  —  children  of 
Pontus,  —  who  rejoiced  in  the  horrors  of  the  sea  : 

a.  The  GrcECB,  three  hoary  witches,  with  one  eye  between  them 
which  they  used  in  turn, 

b.  The  Gorgons,  whose  glance  was  icy  death. 

c.  The  Sirens,  muses  of  the  sea  and  of  death,  who  by  their 
sweet  singing  enticed  seafarers  to  destruction. 

d.  Scylla,   also  destructive  to  mariners,  a  six-headed    monster 
whose  lower  limbs  were  serpents  and  ever-barking  dogs. 


Fig.  42.   Triton  carrying  off  a  Nymph 

5.  Atlas,  who  stood  in  the  far  west,  bearing  on  his  shoulders  the 
vault  of  heaven.  He  was  once  regarded  as  a  divinity  of  the  sea,  but 
later  as  a  mountain.  He  was  the  son  of  lapetus  and  the  father  of 
three  classes  of  nymphs,  —  the  Pleiads,  the  Hyads,  and,  according 
to  some  stories,  the  Hesperids,  The  last-mentioned,  assisted  by 
their  mother  Hesperis  and  a  dragon,  guarded  the  golden  apples  of 
the  tree  that  had  sprung  up  to  grace  the  wedding  of  Jove  and  Juno. 
The  daughters  of  Atlas  were  not  themselves  divinities  of  the  sea. 


58  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

6.  The  Water- Nymphs.  Beside  the  Oceanids  and  the  Nereids, 
who  have  already  been  mentioned,  of  most  importance  were  the 
Naiads,  daughters  of  Jupiter,  They  presided  over  brooks  and  foun- 
tains. Other  lesser  powers  of  the  Ocean  were  Glaucus,  Leucothea, 
and  Melicertes,  of  whom  more  is  said  in  another  section. 

In  the  following  statement  of  the  difference  between  ancient 
and  modern  conceptions  of  nature,  the  poet  lends  new  charm  to 
the  fabled  rulers  of  the  sea. 

The  world  is  too  much  with  us ;  late  and  soon, 
Getting  and  spending,  we  lay  waste  our  powers : 
Little  we  see  in  Nature  that  is  ours ; 
We  have  given  our  hearts  away,  a  sordid  boon ! 
This  sea  that  bares  her  bosom  to  the  moon ; 
The  winds  that  will  be  howling  at  all  hours. 
And  are  upgathered  now  like  sleeping  flowers ; 
For  this,  for  everything,  we  are  out  of  tune ; 
It  moves  us  not.  —  Great  God  !  I  'd  rather  be 
A  Pagan  suckled  in  a  creed  outworn  ; 
So  might  I,  standing  on  this  pleasant  lea, 
Have  glimpses  that  would  make  me  less  forlorn ; 
Have  sight  of  Proteus  rising  from  the  sea ; 
Or  hear  old  Triton  blow  his  wreathed  horn.^ 

1  W^ordsworth,  Miscellaneous  Sonnets. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  ROMAN  DIVINITIES 

53.  Gods  Common  to  Greece  and  Italy.  Of  the  deities  already 
mentioned,  the  following,  although  they  were  later  identified  with 
certain  Greek  gods  and  goddesses  ^  whose  characteristics  and 
adventures  they  assumed,  had  developed  an  independent  worship 
in  Italy  :  Jupiter  (Zeus)  ;  Juno  (Hera)  ;  Minerva  (Athene)  ;  Diana 
(Artemis)  ;  Mars  (Ares) ;  Venus  (Aphrodite)  ;  Vulcanus,  or  Mul- 
ciber  (Hephaestus)  ;  Vesta  (Hestia) ;  Mercurius  (Hermes)  ;  Nep- 
tunus  (Poseidon)  ;  Ceres  (Demeter) ;  Liber  (Bacchus) ;  Libera 
(Persephone) ;  Magna  Mater,  the  great  mother  of  the  gods  (Rhea, 
Cybele)  ;  Orcus  (Pluto,  Hades) ;  Teilus,  the  Earth  (Gaea), 

54.  Italian  Gods.  There  were  also  divinities  always  peculiar  to 
Roman  mythology .^    Of  these  the  more  important  are  : 

I.  Saturn,  an  ancient  Italian  deity  (as  his  name  indicates)  of 
seeds  and  sowing,  the  introducer  of  agriculture.  Fanciful  attempts 
were  made  to  identify  him  with  the  Grecian  god  Cronus  ;  and  it 
was  fabled  that  after  his  dethronement  by  Jupiter  he  fied  to  Italy, 
where  he  reigned  during  the  Golden  Age.  In  memory  of  his 
dominion,  the  feast  of  Saturnalia  was  held  every  year  in  the  winter 
season.  Then  all  public  business  was  suspended  ;  declarations  of 
war  and  criminal  executions  were  postponed  ;  friends  made  pres- 
ents to  one  another ;  and  even  slaves  were  indulged  with  great 
liberties,  A  feast  was  given  them  at  which  they  sat  at  table  while 
their  masters  served,  to  show  the  natural  equality  of  men,  and 
that  all  things  belonged  equally  to  all  in  the  reign  of  Saturn. 
The  wife  of  Saturn  was  Ops,  goddess  of  sowing  and  harvest  (later 
confounded  with  Rhea).  Another  Roman  deity  of  earth  was 
Consus,  whose  name  means  "  the  keeper  of  the  stores."    He  is  the 

1  Names  of  the  corresponding  Greek  divinities  are  in  parentheses. 

2  For  illustrative  material,  see  Commentary. 

59 


6o  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

god  of  the  stored-up  harvest ;  and  his  altar  is  said  to  have  been  dis- 
covered underground  by  Romulus,  It  was  in  the  Circus  Maximus 
and  was  uncovered  only  on  the  days  of  his  festivals,  the  harvest 
home  of  August  and  the  granary  feast  of  December.  The  under- 
ground altar  is  a  reminiscence  of  the  ancient  custom  of  storing  corn 
underground  or  at  any  rate  of  burying  the  sacrifices  offered  to  deities 
of  the  earth.  The  harvest  festival  was  celebrated  with  horse  races, 
which,  originating  in  a  very  simple  way  with  the  primitive  farmers, 
became  in  time  the  distinctive  feature  of  the  Circus  Maximus. 

2.  Jamis,  whose  name  is  derived  from  the  Latin  root  which 
means  "going"  and  is  connected  W\t\\  janua,  a  passage  or  door, 
is  the  most  distinctive  and  most  important  of 
the  native  Italic  deities.  He  is  not  only  the 
god  of  doors,  or  material  openings,  but  more 
truly  of  beginnings,  —  especially  of  good  be- 
ginnings which  insure  good  endings.  Hence 
undoubtedly  he  is  represented  as  facing  both 
ways  ;  for  the  Romans  very  properly  believed 
that  beginning  and  ending  were  of  the  same 
^^i  Nus  ^  piece,  and  that  an  undertaking  ill  begun 
could  not  achieve  success.  His  temple,  or 
covered  passage,  in  the  Forum  had  doors  facing  east  and  west  for 
the  beginning  and  ending  of  the  day ;  and  between  stood  his  two- 
faced  statue.  In  every  home  the  morning  prayer  was  addressed  to 
him  ;  in  every  domestic  enterprise  his  assistance  was  implored.  He 
was  the  god,  also,  of  the  opening  year  ;  hence  his  month,  January, 
on  the  first  day  of  which  words  only  of  good  omen  were  uttered, 
and  gifts  were  given  [strenae,  a  name  still  preserved  in  the  French 
word  for  New  Year's  presents,  ^tretines),  and,  for  good  luck,  some 
stroke  of  work  was  bestowed  on  every  undertaking  planned  for 
the  year.  He  was  publicly  invoked  not  only  on  New  Year's  day, 
but  on  the  first  day  of  each  month,  by  priests  and  people  alike ; 
and  in  these  prayers  his  name  was  mentioned  even  before  that  of 
Jupiter,  He  is  the  god  of  civilization,  and  is  sometimes  called 
Consivius,  or  the  Sower,i  Of  course  he  was  invoked  when  wars 
were  commenced.    And  during  their  progress  the  doors  of  his 

1  Gellius,  5,  12.   Ovid,  Fasti,  i,  179.   Macrobius,  Sat.  1,  9-15. 


THE  ROMAN  DIVINITIES  6 1 

temple  stood  always  open.  In  peace  they  were  closed ;  but  they 
were  shut  only  once  between  the  reign  of  Numa  and  that  of 
Augustus.  It  was  natural  that  his  worship  should  gradually  absorb 
that  of  Sol,  the  Sun,  who  opens  the  day  and  completes  the  year  and 
blesses  with  his  rays  the  seeds  that  are  sown ;  and  such  was  the 
case.  But  Janus  and  his  wife  Jana  were  not  originally  connected 
even  in  name  with  Dianus  (Sol,  Apollo)  and  Diana  (the  moon). 

3.  Quirijius,  a  war-god,  said  to  be  no  other  than  Romulus,  the 
founder  of  Rome,  exalted  after  his  death  to  a  place  among  the 
immortals. 

4.  Bellona,  a  war-goddess. 

5.  Liuina,  the  goddess  who  brings  to  light,  hence  the  goddess 
of  childbirth  :  a  title  bestowed  upon  both  Juno  and  Diana. 

6.  Termimis,  the  god  of  landmarks.  His  statue  was  a  rude 
stone  or  post,  set  in  the  ground  to  mark  the  boundaries  of  fields. 

7.  Faimns,  the  grandson  of  Saturn.  He  was  worshiped  as  a 
god  of  fields  and  shepherds  and  also  of  prophecy.  His  name  in 
the  plural,  Fauni,  expressed  a  class  of  gamesome  deities,  like  the 
Satyrs  of  the  Greeks.  There  was  also  a  goddess  called  Fauna,  or 
Bona  Dea  (good  goddess).  To  Maia,  wife  of  Vulcan,  this  desig- 
nation, Bo7ia  Dea,  was  sometimes  applied. 

8.  Sylvanus,  presiding  over  forest-glades  and  plowed  fields. 

9.  Pales,  the  goddess  presiding  over  cattle  and  pastures.  Flora, 
the  goddess  of  flowers.  Pomona,  presiding  over  fruit  trees.  Ver- 
tumnus,  the  husband  of  Pomona,  was  guardian  of  fruit  trees, 
gardens,  and  vegetables. 

Pomona  loves  the  orchard, 

And  Liber  loves  the  vine, 
And  Pales  loves  the  straw-built  shed 

Warm  with  the  breath  of  kine ; 
And  Venus  loves  the  whisper 

Of  plighted  youth  and  maid 
In  April's  ivory  moonlight, 

Beneath  the  chestnut  shade.^ 

10.  The  Penates,  gods  who  were  supposed  to  attend  to  the 
welfare  and  prosperity  of  the  family.    Their  name  is  derived  from 

1  From  Macaulay's  Prophecy  of  Capys. 


62 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Penus,  the  storehouse  or  inner  chamber,  which  was  sacred  to 
them.  Every  master  of  a  family  was  the  priest  to  the  Penates  of 
his  own  house. 

The  Lares,  or  Lars,  were  also  tutelary  deities,  but  they  differed 
from  the  Penates  since  they  were  regarded  as  the  deified  spirits 
of  ancestors,  who  watched  over  and  protected  their  descendants. 
The  Lares  were  more  particularly  divinities  presiding  over  the 
household  or  family  ;  but  there  were  also  public  Lares,  or  guardian 
spirits  of  the  city,  Lares  of  the  precincts.  Lares  of  the  fields,  Lares 
of  the  highways,  and  Lares  of  the  sea.  To  the  Penates,  to  the 
domestic  Lares  (whose  images  were  preserved  in  a  private  shrine), 

and  to  the  Manes  (shades  that 
hovered  over  the  place  of 
burial),  the  family  prayers  of 
the  Romans  were  addressed. 
Other  spirits,  the  Lemures  and 
Larvtc ,Yi\oxQ.  nearly  correspond 
to  our  ghosts. 

The  Romans  believed  that 
every  man  had  his  Genius  and 
every  woman  her  Jnno ;  that 
is,  a  spirit  who  had  given  them 
being  and  was  regarded  as 
a  protector  through  life.  On 
birthdays  men  made  offerings  to  their  Genius,  women  to  their  Juno. 
1 1 .  Other  Italian  deities  were  the  gods  of  the  rivers,  such  as 
Father  Tiber,  and  the  goddesses  of  the  springs  and  brooks,  such  as 
Jutuma,  whose  pool  in  the  Forum  was  sacred.  This  nymph  was 
also  a  goddess  of  healing  and,  according  to  later  tradition,  was 
beloved  by  Jupiter.  Earlier  stories,  however,  make  her  the  wife 
of  Janus  and  the  mother  of  Fontns,  the  god  of  flowing  waters, 
who  had  an  altar  on  the  Janiculan  hill  and  was  worshiped  at  an 
annual  festival  called  the  Fontinalia,  when  the  wells  were  wreathed 
with  garlands.  Held  in  especial  honor  were  the  Camencs,  fountain- 
nymphs,  goddesses  of  prophecy  and  healing  (later  identified  with 
the  Muses).  The  leader  of  them  was  Carnienta,  who  sang  both  the 
future  and  the  past.    With  her  is  sometimes  associated  the  nymph 


Fig.  44.   Genius  Loci 


THE  ROMAN  DIVINITIES  63 

Egeria,  from  whom  the  Roman  king  Numa  is  said  to  have  received 
instruction  concerning  the  forms  of  worship  which  he  introduced, 

12.  The  Romans  worshiped,  also,  Sol,  the  Sun;  Lima,  the 
Moon ;  Mater  Matiita,  the  Dawn ;  JuvenUis,  Youth ;  Fides, 
Honesty ;  Feronia,  goddess  of  groves  and  freedmen  ;  and  a  great 
number  of  personified  abstractions  of  conduct  and  experience, 
such  as  Fortune  and  Health, 

Many  of  these  Latin  divinities  were  derived  from  the  earlier 
cult  and  ritual  of  the  Etruscan  inhabitants  of  Italy. 


CHAPTER  VII 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN 

55.  Myths  of  Jupiter  and  Juno.  Not  a  few  of  the  adventures 
of  Jupiter  turn  upon  his  love  affairs.  Among  the  immortals  his 
queen  had  rivals  in  his  affection ;  for  instance,  Latona,  a  goddess 
of  darkness,  daughter  of  the  Titans  Coeus  and  Phoebe.  This  god- 
dess became,  as  we  have  already  seen,  the  mother  of  Apollo  and 

Diana.  The  ire  of  Juno  against 
her  was  never  appeased.  In 
consequence  of  it,  numerous 
trials  were  visited  upon  Latona, 
some  of  which  find  a  place 
among  the  adventures  of  her 
children. 

56.  Love  Affairs  of  Jupiter. 
Not  only  with  immortals  but 
with  mortals  were  Jupiter's  re- 
lations sometimes  of  a  dubious 
character.  His  devotion  to  the 
beautiful  daughters  of  men  in- 
volved him  in  frequent  alter- 
cations with  his  justly  jealous 
spouse.  Of  his  fondness  for  Danae,  whom  he  approached  in  a 
shower  of  gold,  particulars  are  given  in  the  story  of  her  son  Per- 
seus ;  of  his  love  for  Alcmene,  the  granddaughter  of  that  Perseus, 
we  are  informed  in  the  myths  of  her  son  Hercules ;  and  of  his 
attentions  to  Leda,  whom  he  wooed  in  guise  of  a  swan,  we  learn 
in  the  accounts  of  their  children  Pollux  and  Helen.  Other  love 
passages,  upon  which  narratives  depend,  concern  lo,  Callisto, 
Europa,  Semele,  ^gina,  and  Antiope. 

64 


Fig.  45.  Ganymede 


Long-itude 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN     65 


57.  lo  ^  was  of  divine  ancestty.  Her  father  was  the  river-god 
Inachus,  son  of  Oceanus,  It  is  said  that  Juno  one  day,  perceiving 
the  skies  suddenly  overcast,  surmised  that  her  husband  had  raised 
a  cloud  to  hide  some  escapade.  She  brushed  away  the  darkness 
and  saw  him  on  the  banks  of  a  glassy  river  with  a  beautiful  heifer 
standing  near.  Juno  suspected,  with  reason,  that  the  heifer's  form 
concealed  some  fair  nymph  of  mortal  mold.  It  was  To,  whom 
Jupiter,  when  he  became  aware  of  the  approach  of  his  wife,  had 
changed  into  that  form. 

The  ox-eyed  goddess  joined  her  husband,  noticed  the  heifer, 
praised  its  beauty,  and  asked  whose  it  was  and  of  what  herd. 
Jupiter,  to  stop  questions, 
replied  that  it  was  a  fresh 
creation  from  the  earth. 
Juno  begged  it  as  a  gift. 
What  could  the  king  of 
gods  and  men  do }  He 
was  loath  to  surrender  his 
sweetheart  to  his  wife  ;  yet 
how  refuse  so  trifling  a 
present  as  a  heifer }  He  could  not,  without  exciting  suspicion, 
and  he  therefore  consented.  The  goddess  delivered  the  heifer 
to  Argus,  to  be  strictly  watched. 

Now  Argus  had  a  hundred  eyes  in  his  head,  and  never  went 
to  sleep  with  more  than  two  at  a  time,  so  that  he  kept  watch  of 
lo  constantly.  He  suffered  her  to  graze  through  the  day  and  at 
night  tied  a  rope  round  her  neck.  She  would  have  stretched  out 
her  arms  to  implore  freedom  of  Argus,  but  that  she  had  no  arms 
to  stretch  out  and  her  voice  was  a  bellow.  She  yearned  in  vain 
to  make  herself  known  to  her  father.  At  length  she  bethought 
herself  of  writing,  and  inscribed  her  name  —  it  was  a  short  one  ■ — 
with  her  hoof  on  the  sand.  Inachus  recognized  it,  and,  discover- 
ing that  his  daughter  whom  he  had  long  sought  in  vain  was  hidden 
under  this  disguise,  mourned  over  her.  While  he  thus  lamented, 
Argus,  observing,  drove  her  away  and  took  his  seat  on  a  bank 
from  whence  he  could  see  in  every  direction, 

1  Ovid,  Metam.  1,  700  et  seq. 


Fig.  46.    Hermes  kills  Argus 


66 


IHE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Jupiter,  grieved  by  the  sufferings  of  his  mistress,  sent  Mercury 
to  dispatch  Argus.  Mercury  took  his  sleep-producing  wand  and 
presented  himself  on  earth  as  a  shepherd  driving  his  flock.  As 
he  strolled,  he  blew  upon  his  syrinx  or  Pandean  pipes.  Argus 
listened  with  delight.  "  Young  man,"  said  he,  "  come  and  take  a 
seat  by  me  on  this  stone.  There  is  no  better  place  for  your  flock 
to, graze  in  than  hereabouts,  and  here  is  a  pleasant  shade  such  as 
shepherds  love."     Mercury  sat  down,   talked,  told  stories  till  it 

grew  late,  and  played  upon 
his  pipes  his  most  soothing 
strains,  hoping  to  lull  the 
watchful  eyes  to  sleep,  but 
in  vain ;  for  Argus  still 
contrived  to  keep  some  of 
his  eyes  open,  though  he 
shut  the  rest. 

But  among  other  stories, 
Mercury  told  him  how  the  in- 
strument on  which  he  played 
was  invented.  "  There  was 
a  certain  nymph,"  said  he, 
"whose  name  was  Syrinx,  — 
much  beloved  by  the  satyrs 
and  spirits  of  the  wood.  She 
would  have  none  of  them, 
but  was  a  faithful  worshiper 
of  Diana  and  followed  the  chase.  Pan,  meeting  her  one  day, 
wooed  her  with  many  compliments,  likening  her  to  Diana  of  the 
silver  bow.  Without  stopping  to  hear  him  she  ran  away.  But  on 
the  bank  of  the  river  he  overtook  her.  She  called  for  help  on  her 
friends,  the  water-nymphs.  They  heard  and  consented.  Pan  threw 
his  arms  around  what  he  supposed  to  be  the  form  of  the  nymph  and 
found  he  embraced  only  a  tuft  of  reeds.  As  he  breathed  a  sigh,  the 
air  sounded  through  the  reeds  and  produced  a  plaintive  melody. 
Whereupon  the  god,  charmed  with  the  novelty  and  with  the 
sweetness  of  the  music,  said,  '  Thus,  then,  at  least,  you  shall  be 
mine.'  Taking  some  of  the  reeds  of  unequal  lengths  and  placing 


Fig.  47.    lo,  Argus,  and  Mercury 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN     67 

them  together,  side  by  side,  he  made  an  instrument  and  called  it 
Syrinx,  in  honor  of  the  nymph."  Before  Mercury  had  finished  his 
story  he  saw  the  eyes  of  Argus  all  asleep.  At  once  he  slew  him  and 
set  lo  free.  The  eyes  of  Argus  Juno  took  and  scattered  as  orna- 
ments on  the  tail  of  her  peacock,  where  they  remain  to  this  day. 

But  the  vengeance  of  Juno  was  not  yet  satiated.  She  sent  a 
gadfly  to  torment  lo,  who,  in  her  flight,  swam  through  the  sea, 
named  after  her,  Ionian.  Afterward,  roaming  over  many  lands, 
she  reached  at  last  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  Then  Jupiter  interceded 
for  her ;  and  upon  his  engaging  not  to  pay  her  any  further  atten- 
tion, Juno  consented  to  restore  her  to  her  form. 

In  a  poem  dedicated  to  Leigh  Hunt,  by  Keats,  the  following 
allusion  to  the  story  of  Pan  and  Syrinx  occurs  : 

So  did  he  feel  who  pulled  the  boughs  aside, 

That  we  might  look  into  a  forest  wide,  .  .  . 

Telling  us  how  fair  trembling  Syrinx  fled 

Arcadian  Pan,  with  such  a  fearful  dread. 

Poor  nymph  —  poor  Pan  —  how  he  did  weep  to  find 

Nought  but  a  lovely  sighing  of  the  wind 

Along  the  reedy  stream ;  a  half-heard  strain, 

Full  of  sweet  desolation,  balmy  pain. 

58.  Callisto  of  Arcadia  was  another  maiden  who  excited  the 
jealousy  of  Juno.  Her  the  goddess  changed  into  a  bear.  Often, 
frightened  by  the  dogs,  Callisto,  though  lately  a  huntress,  fled  in 
terror  from  the  hunters.  Often,  too,  she  fled  from  the  wild  beasts, 
forgetting  that  she  was  now  a  wild  beast  herself ;  and,  bear  as  she 
was,  she  feared  the  bears. 

One  day  a  youth  espied  her  as  he  was  hunting.  She  saw  him 
and  recognized  him  as  her  son  Areas,  grown  to  manhood.  She 
stopped  and  felt  inclined  to  embrace  him.  He,  alarmed,  raised 
his  hunting  spear  and  was  on  the  point  of  transfixing  her,  but 
Jupiter  arrested  the  crime  and,  snatching  away  both  of  them, 
placed  them  in  the  heavens  as  the  Great  and  Little  Bear. 

Juno,  enraged  at  seeing  her  rival  so  set  in  honor,  hastened  to 
ancient  Tethys  and  Oceanus  and,  complaining  that  she  was  sup- 
planted in  Heaven,  cried,  "So  do  my  punishments  result^ such 
is  the  extent  of  my  power !    I  forbade  her  to  wear  human  form, 


68  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

—  she  and  her  hateful  son  are  placed  among  the  stars.  Better 
that  she  should  have  resumed  her  former  shape,  as  I  permitted  lo 
to  do.  Perhaps  my  husband  means  to  take  her  to  wife,  and  put 
me  away !  But  you,  my  foster  parents,  if  you  feel  for  me,  and  see 
with  displeasure  this  unworthy  treatment  of  me,  show  it,  I  beseech 
you,  by  forbidding  this  guilty  couple  from  coming  into  your  waters." 
The  powers  of  the  Ocean  assented,  and  consequently  the  two  con- 
stellations of  the  Great  and  Little  Bear  move  round  and  round  in 
the  neighborhood  of  the  pole,  but  never  sink,  as  do  the  other 
stars,  beneath  the  Ocean. ^ 

59.  Europa  was  the  daughter  of  Agenor,  king  of  Phoenicia, 
son  of  the  god  Neptune.  The  story  of  Jupiter's  love  for  her  is 
thus  told  by  the  idyllic  poet,  Moschus  : 

To  Europa,  princess  of  Asia,  once  on  a  time,  a  sweet  dream  was  sent  by 
Cypris.  .  .  .  Then  she  beheld  two  continents  at  strife  for  her  sake,  Asia  and 
the  further  shore,  both  in  the  shape  of  women.  Of  these  one  had  the  guise 
of  a  stranger,  the  other  of  a  lady  of  that  land,  and  closer  still  she  clung  about 
her  maiden,  and  kept  saying  how  she  was  her  mother,  and  herself  had  nursed 
Europa.  But  that  other  with  mighty  hands,  and  forcefully,  kept  haling  the 
maiden,  nothing  loth ;  declaring  that,  by  the  will  of  asgis-bearing  Jupiter, 
Europa  was  destined  to  be  her  prize. 

But  Europa  leaped  forth  from  her  strown  bed  in  terror,  with  beating  heart, 
in  such  clear  vision  had  she  beheld  the  dream.  .  .  .  And  she  said,  "  Ah  !  who 
was  the  alien  woman  that  I  beheld  in  my  sleep.''  How  strange  a  longing  for 
her  seized  my  heart,  yea,  and  how  graciously  she  herself  did  welcome  me,  and 
regard  me  as  it  had  been  her  own  child  !  Ye  blessed  gods,  I  pray  you,  prosper 
the  fulfillment  of  the  dream  !  " 

Therewith  she  arose,  and  began  to  seek  the  dear  maidens  of  her  company, 
girls  of  like  age  with  herself,  born  in  the  same  year,  beloved  of  her  heart,  the 
daughters  of  noble  sires,  with  whom  she  was  always  wont  to  sport,  when  she 
was  arrayed  for  the  dance,  or  when  she  would  bathe  her  bright  body  at  the 
mouths  of  the  rivers,  or  would  gather  fragrant  lilies  on  the  leas.  ... 

Now  the  girls,  so  soon  as  they  were  come  to  the  flowering  meadows,  took  great 
delight  in  various  sorts  of  flowers,  whereof  one  would  pluck  sweet-breathed 
narcissus,  another  the  hyacinth,  another  the  violet,  a  fourth  the  creeping 
thyme ;  and  on  the  ground  there  fell  many  petals  of  the  meadows  rich  with 
spring.  Others,  again,  were  emulously  gathering  the  fragrant  tresses  of  the 
yellow  crocus ;  but  in  the  midst  of  them  all  the  princess  culled  with  her  hand 

1  Ovid,  Metam.  2,  410  et  seq. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN     69 


Fig.  48.   EuROPA  on  the  Bull 


the  splendor  of  the  crimson  rose,  and  shone  preeminent  among  them  all  like 
the  foam-born  goddess  among  the  Graces.  Verily,  she  was  not  for  long  to  set 
her  heart's  delight  upon  the  flowers.  .  .  .  For  of  a  truth,  the  son  of  Cronus, 
so  soon  as  he  beheld  her,  was  troubled,  and  his  heart  was  subdued  by  the 
sudden  shafts  of  Cypris,  who  alone  can  conquer  even  Jupiter.  Therefore,  both 
to  avoid  the  wrath  of  jealous  Juno,  and  being  eager  to  beguile  the  maiden's 
tender  heart,  he  concealed  his  godhead,  and  changed  his  shape,  and  became  a 
bull.  .  .  . 

He  came  into  the  meadow,  and  his  coming  terrified  not  the  maidens,  nay, 
within  them  all  wakened  desire  to  draw  nigh  the  lovely  bull,  and  to  touch 
him,  and  his  heavenly  fra- 
grance was  scattered  afar, 
exceeding  even  the  sweet 
perfume  of  the  meadows. 
And  he  stood  before  the 
feet  of  fair  Europa,  and 
kept  licking  her  neck, 
and  cast  his  spell  over 
the  maiden.  And  she  still 
caressed  him,  and  gently 
with  her  hands  she  wiped 
away  the  deep  foam  from  his  lips,  and  kissed  the  bull.  Then  he  lowed  so 
gently,  ye  would  think  ye  heard  the  Mygdonian  flute  uttering  a  dulcet  sound. 

He  bowed  himself  before  her  feet,  and  bending  back  his  neck,  he  gazed  on 
Europa,  and  showed  her  his  broad  back.  Then  she  spake  among  her  deep- 
tressed  maidens,  saying, — 

"  Come,  dear  playmates,  maidens  of  like  age  with  me,  let  us  mount  the  bull 
here  and  take  our  pastime,  for,  truly,  he  will  bear  us  on  his  back,  and  carry  all 
of  us !  And  how  mild  he  is,  and  dear,  and  gentle  to  behold,  and  no  whit  like 
other  bulls !  A  mind  as  honest  as  a  man's  possesses  him,  and  he  lacks  nothing 
but  speech." 

So  she  spake,  and  smiling,  she  sat  down  on  the  back  of  the  bull,  and  the 
others  were  about  to  follow  her.  But  the  bull  leaped  up  immediately,  now  he 
had  gotten  her  that  he  desired,  and  swiftly  he  sped  to  the  deep.  The  maiden 
turned,  and  called  again  and  again  to  her  dear  playmates,  stretching  out  her 
hands,  but  they  could  not  reach  her.  The  strand  he  gained,  and  forward  he 
sped  like  a  dolphin,  faring  with  unwetted  hooves  over  the  wide  waves.  And 
the  sea,  as  he  came,  grew  smooth,  and  the  sea  monsters  gamboled  around, 
before  the  feet  of  Jupiter;  and  the  dolphin  rejoiced,  and  rising  from  the  deeps, 
he  tumbled  on  the  swell  of  the  sea.  The  Nereids  arose  out  of  the  salt  water, 
and  all  of  them  came  on  in  orderly  array,  riding  on  the  backs  of  sea  beasts. 
And  himself,  the  thunderous  shaker  of  the  world,  appeared  above  the  sea,  and 


70 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


made  smooth  the  wave,  and  guided  his  brother  on  the  salt  sea  path,  and  round 
him  were  gathered  the  Tritons,  these  hoarse  trumpeters  of  the  deep,  blowing 
from  their  long  conchs  a  bridal  melody. 

Meanwhile,  Europa,  riding  on  the  back  of  the  divine  bull,  with  one  hand 
clasped  the  beast's  great  horn,  and  with  the  other  caught  up  the  purple  fold 
of  her  garment,  lest  it  might  trail  and  be  wet  in  the  hoar  sea's  infinite  spray. 
And  her  deep  robe  was  swelled  out  by  the  winds,  like  the  sail  of  a  ship,  and 
lightly  still  did  waft  the  maiden  onward.    But  when  she  was  now  far  off  from 


Fig.  49.    Nereids  on  Sea  Beasts 

her  own  country,  and  neither  sea-beat  headland  nor  steep  hill  could  now  be 
seen,  but  above,  the  air,  and  beneath,  the  limitless  deep,  timidly  she  looked 
around,  and  uttered  her  voice,  saying,  — 

"  Whither  bearest  thou  me,  bull  god.?  What  art  thou?  How  dost  thou  fare 
on  thy  feet  through  the  path  of  the  sea  beasts,  nor  fearest  the  sea  ?  The  sea 
is  a  path  meet  for  swift  ships  that  traverse  the  brine,  but  bulls  dread  the  salt 
sea  ways.  What  drink  is  sweet  to  thee,  what  food  shalt  thou  find  from  the  deep  ? 
Nay,  art  thou  then  some  god,  for  god-like  are  these  deeds  of  thine."  .  .  . 

So  spake  she,  and  the  horned  bull  made  answer  to  her  again :  "  Take 
courage,  maiden,  and  dread  not  the  swell  of  the  deep.  Behold,  I  am  Jupiter, 
even  I,  though,  closely  beheld,  I  wear  the  form  of  a  bull,  for  I  can  put  on  the 
semblance  of  what  thing  I  will.  But  't  is  love  of  thee  that  has  compelled  me 
to  measure  out  so  great  a  space  of  the  salt  sea,  in  a  bull's  shape.  So  Crete 
shall  presently  receive  thee,  Crete  that  was  mine  own  foster-mother,  where  thy 
bridal  chamber  shall  be.^  • 

According  to  tradition,  from  this  princess  the  continent  of 
Europe  acquired  its  name.    Her  three  sons  are  famous  in  Greek 

1  Translated  by  Andrew  I.ang  :   Jheocritus,  Bion,  and  Moschus,  London,  iSSo. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN     71 

myth  :  Minos,  who  became  king  of  Crete,  and  after  his  death  a 
judge  in  the  lower  world  ;  Rhadamanthus,  who  also  was  regarded 
as  king  and  judge  in  the  world  of  ghosts  ;  and  Sarpedon,  who  was 
ancestor  of  the  Lycians. 

The  adventures  of  Europa's  brother  Cadmus,  who  by  the  com- 
mand of  his  father  went  forth  in  quest  of  the  lost  maiden,  fall 
under  the  myths  of  Mars.^ 

60.  Semele  was  the  daughter 
of  Cadmus,  founder  of  Thebes. 
She  was  descended,  through 
both  parents,  from  the  gods  ; 
for  her  mother  Harmonia  was 
daughter  to  Mars  and  the 
laughter-loving  Venus.  To 
Semele  Jupiter  had  appeared, 
and  had  paid  court  in  unos- 
tentatious manner  and  simple 
guise.  But  Juno,  to  gratify  her 
resentment  against  this  new 
rival  for  her  lord's  affections, 
contrived  a  plan  for  her  de- 
struction. Assuming  the  form 
of  Beroe,  the  aged  nurse  of 
Semele,  she  insinuated  doubts 
whether  it  was  indeed  Jove 
himself  who  came  as  a  lover. 


Fig.  50.   Bacchus  emhracixg  Semele 


Heaving  a  sigh,  she  said,  "  I  hope  it  wall  turn  out  so,  but  I  can't 
help  being  afraid.  People  are  not  always  what  they  pretend  to  be. 
If  he  is  indeed  Jove,  make  him  give  some  proof  of  it.  Ask  him 
to  come  arrayed  in  all  his  splendors,  such  as  he  wears  in  Heaven. 
That  will  put  the  matter  beyond  a  doubt."  Semele  was  persuaded 
to  try  the  experiment.  She  asks  a  favor,  without  naming  what  it 
is.  Jove  gives  his  promise,  and  confirms  it  with  the  irrevocable 
oath,  attesting  the  river  Styx,  terrible  to  the  gods  themselves. 
Then  she  made  known  her  request.  The  god  would  have  stopped 
her  as  she  spake,  but  she  was  too  quick  for  him.     The  words 

i§7o. 


72  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

escaped,  and  he  could  neither  unsay  his  promise  nor  her  request. 
In  deep  distress  he  left  her  and  returned  to  the  upper  regions. 
There  he  clothed  himself  in  his  splendors,  not  putting  on  all  his 
terrors,  as  when  he  overthrew  the  giants,  but  what  is  known  among 
the  gods  as  his  lesser  panoply.  With  thunders  and  lightnings 
he  entered  the  chamber  of  Semele.  Her  mortal  frame  could  not 
endure  the  splendors  of  the  immortal  radiance.  She  was  con- 
sumed to  ashes.^  Her  son  was  the  god  Bacchus.^  Semele,  in  the 
blissful  seats  of  Heaven,  whither  she  was  transported  by  the  sor- 
rowful Jove,  has  been  represented  as  recounting  thus  the  story  of 
her  doom  : 

What  were  the  garden-bowers  of  Thebes  to  me.'' 

What  cared  I  for  their  dances  and  their  feasts, 

Whose  heart  awaited  an  immortal  doom  } 

The  Greek  youths  mocked  me,  since  I  shunned  in  scorn 

Them  and  their  praises  of  my  brows  and  hair. 

The  light  girls  pointed  after  me,  who  turned 

Soul-sick  from  their  unending  fooleries.  ... 

There  came  a  change :  a  glory  fell  to  me. 

No  more  't  was  Semele,  the  lonely  girl. 

But  Jupiter's  Beloved,  Semele. 

With  human  arms  the  god  came  clasping  me : 

New  life  streamed  from  his  presence ;  and  a  voice, 

That  scarce  could  curb  itself  to  the  smooth  Greek, 

Now  and  anon  swept  forth  in  those  deep  nights. 

Thrilling  my  flesh  with  awe ;  mysterious  words  — 

I  knew  not  what ;  hints  of  unearthly  things 

That  I  had  felt  on  solemn  summer  noons. 

When  sleeping  Earth  dreamed  music,  and  the  heart 

Went  crooning  a  low  song  it  could  not  learn. 

But  wandered  over  it,  as  one  who  gropes 

For  a  forgotten  chord  upon  a  lyre. 

Yea,  Jupiter !    But  why  this  mortal  guise. 

Wooing  as  if  he  were  a  milk-faced  boy  ? 

Did  I  lack  lovers  ?  Was  my  beauty  dulled. 

The  golden  hair  turned  dross,  the  lithe  limbs  shrunk  ? 

The  deathless  longings  tamed,  that  I  should  seethe 

My  soul  in  love  like  any  shepherd  girl  ? 

i  Ovid,  Metam.  3,  260  et  seq.  '^  §§  42,  1 10-113. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN     73 

One  night  he  sware  to  grant  whate'er  I  asked : 
And  straight  I  cried,  "  To  know  thee  as  thou  art ! 
To  hold  thee  on  my  heart  as  Juno  does ! 
Come  in  thy  thunder  —  kill  me  with  one  fierce 
Divine  embrace  !  —  Thine  oath  !  —  Now,  Earth,  at  last !  " 

The  Heavens  shot  one  swift  sheet  of  lurid  flame  ; 
The  world  crashed :  from  a  body  scathed  and  torn 
The  soul  leapt  through,  and  found  his  breast,  and  died. 

Died?  —  So  the  Theban  maidens  think,  and  laugh. 
Saying,  "  She  had  her  wish,  that  Semele !  " 
But  sitting  here  upon  Olympus'  height, 
I  look  down,  through  that  oval  ring  of  stars. 
And  see  the  far-off  Earth,  a  twinkling  speck  — 
Dust-mote  whirled  up  from  the  Sun's  chariot  wheel  — 
And  pity  their  small  hearts  that  hold  a  man 
As  if  he  were  a  god ;  or  know  the  god  — 
Or  dare  to  know  him  —  only  as  a  man  ! 
O  human  love  !  art  thou  forever  blind  ?  ^ 

61.  ^gina.  The  extent  to  which  those  who  were  concerned 
only  indirectly  in  Jupiter's  love  affairs  might  yet  be  involved  in 
the  consequences  of  them  is  illustrated  by  the  fortunes  of  ^gina. 
This  maiden,  the  daughter  of  Asopus,  a  river-god,  attracted  the 
attention  of  Jupiter,  who  straightway  ran  off  with  her.  Now,  on 
the  one  hand,  Sisyphus,  king  of  Corinth,  having  witnessed  the 
intrigue,  was  indiscreet  enough  to  disclose  it.  Forthwith  the  ven- 
geance of  the  king  of  gods  and  men  fell  upon  him.  He  was  con- 
demned to  Hades  and,  attempting  to  escape  thence,  had  resort 
to  a  series  of  deceptions  that  resulted  in  his  eternal  punishment.^ 
On  the  other  hand,  the  inhabitants  of  the  island  that  had  the  mis- 
fortune to  bear  ^gina's  name  incurred  the  displeasure  of  Juno,  who 
devastated  their  land  with  a  plague.  The  following  account  of  this 
calamity  is  placed  in  the  mouth  of  ^acus,  king  of  the  island  :  ^ 

"  At  the  beginning  the  sky  seemed  to  settle  down  upon  the 
earth  and  thick  clouds  shut  in  the  heated  air.  For  four  months 
together  a  deadly  south  wind  prevailed.  The  disorder  affected  the 
wells  and  springs.    Thousands  of  snakes  crept  over  the  land  and 

1  From  E.  R.  Sill's  Semele.  2  Commentary,  §§  ii8,  255. 

8  Ovid,  Metam.  7,  172  et  seq. 


74  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

shed  their  poison  in  the  fountains.  The  force  of  the  disease  was 
first  spent  on  the  lower  animals,  —  dogs,  cattle,  sheep,  and  birds. 
The  oxen  fell  in  the  midst  of  their  work.  The  wool  dropped  from 
the  bleating  sheep.  The  horse  groaned  at  his  stall  and  died  an 
inglorious  death.  Everything  languished  ;  dead  bodies  lay  in  the 
roads,  the  fields,  and  the  woods  ;  the  air  was  poisoned  by  them. 
Next  the  disease  attacked  the  country  people,  and  then  the  dwellers 
in  the  city.  At  first  the  cheek  was  flushed  and  the  breath  drawn 
with  difficulty.  The  tongue  grew  rough  and  swelled,  and  the  dry 
mouth  stood  open,  with  its  veins  enlarged,  and  gasped  for  the  air. 
Men  could  not  bear  the  heat  of  their  clothes  or  their  beds,  but 
preferred  to  lie  on  the  bare  ground.  Nor  could  the  physicians 
help,  for  the  disease  attacked  them  also.  At  last  men  learned  to 
look  upon  death  as  the  only  deliverer  from  disease.  All  restraint 
laid  aside,  they  crowded  round  the  wells  and  fountains,  and  drank, 
without  quenching  thirst,  till  they  died.  On  all  sides  lay  my  people 
strewn  like  overripened  apples  beneath  the  tree,  or  acorns  under 
the  storm-shaken  oak.  You  see  yonder  a  temple  on  the  height. 
It  is  sacred  to  Jupiter.  Often,  while  the  priest  made  ready  for  . 
sacrifice,  the  victim  fell,  struck  down  by  disease  without  waiting 
for  the  blow.  At  length  all  reverence  for  sacred  things  was  lost. 
Bodies  were  thrown  out  unburied,  wood  was  wanting  for  funeral 
piles,  men  fought  with  one  another  for  the  possession  of  them. 
Finally  there  were  none  left  to  mourn  ;  sons  and  husbands,  old 
men  and  youths,  perished  alike  unlamented. 

"  Standing  before  the  altar,  I  raised  my  eyes  to  Heaven.  '  O 
Jupiter,'  I  said,  '  if  thou  art  indeed  my  father,  give  me  back  my 
people,  or  take  me  also  away  ! '  At  these  words  a  clap  of  thunder 
was  heard.  '  I  accept  the  omen,'  I  cried.  By  chance  there  grew 
by  the  place  where  I  stood  an  oak  with  wide-spreading  branches, 
sacred  to  Jupiter.  I  observed  on  it  a  troop  of  ants  busy  with  their 
labor.  Observing  their  numbers  with  admiration,  I  said,  '  Give 
me,  O  father,  citizens  as  numerous  as  these,  and  replenish  my 
empty  city.'  The  tree  shook,  and  the  branches  rustled,  though 
no  wind  agitated  them.  Night  came  on.  The  tree  stood  before 
me  in  my  dreams,  with  its  numerous  branches  all  covered  with 
living,  moving  creatures,  which,  falling  to  the  ground,  appeared  to 


i'^' 


1%  , 


/^-  /\ 


f 


FAKNESE  BULL 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN     75 

gain  in  size,  and  by  and  by  to  stand  erect,  and  finally  to  assume 
the  human  form.  Then  I  awoke.  My  attention  was  caught  by 
the  sound  of  many  voices  without.  While  I  began  to  think  I  was 
yet  dreaming,  Telamon,  my  son,  throwing  open  the  temple  gates, 
exclaimed,  '  Father,  approach,  and  behold  things  surpassing  even 
your  hopes  !  '  I  went  forth  ;  I  saw  a  multitude  of  men,  such  as  I 
had  seen  in  my  dream.  While  I  gazed  with  wonder  and  delight, 
they  approached  and,  kneeling,  hailed  me  as  their  king.  I  paid 
my  vows  to  Jove,  and  proceeded  to  allot  the  vacant  city  to  the 
new-born  race.  I  called  them  Myrmidons  from  the  ant  {mynnex), 
from  which  they  sprang.  They  are  a  diligent  and  industrious  race, 
eager  to  gain,  and  tenacious  of  their  gains." 

The  Myrmidons  were  the  soldiers  of  Achilles,  the  grandson  of 
King  yEacus,  in  the  Trojan  War. 

62.  Antiope  was,  according  to  the  Odyssey,  another  daughter 
of  Asopus,  therefore  a  sister  of  ^Egina.  But  later  poets  make 
this  darling  of  Jove  daughter  of  Nycteus,  king  of  Thebes.  While 
she  was  engaged  in  the  Maenad  dances,  Jupiter  as  a  sat}T  wooed 
and  won  her.  She  bore  him  two  sons,  Amphion  and  Zethus,  who, 
being  exposed  at  birth  on  Mount  Cithseron,  grew  up  among  the 
shepherds,  not  knowing  their  parentage.  After  various  adventures 
Antiope  fell  into  the  hands  of  her  uncle  Lycus,  the  usurping  king 
of  Thebes,  who,  egged  on  by  his  wife  Dirce,  treated  her  with 
extreme  cruelty.  Finally,  when  doomed  by  Dirce  to  be  dragged 
to  death  behind  a  bull,  Antiope  found  means  to  inform  her  chil- 
dren of  her  kinship  to  them.  As  it  happened,  they  had  been 
ordered  to  execute  the  cruel  sentence  upon  their  mother.  But 
with  a  band  of  their  fellow  herdsmen,  they  attacked  and  slew 
Lycus  instead,  and,  tying  Dirce  by  the  hair  of  her  head  to  a  bull, 
let  her  perish  by  her  own  device.^ 

While  among  the  herdsmen,  AnipJiion  had  been  the  special  care 
of  Mercury,  who  gave  him  a  lyre  and  taught  him  to  play  upon  it. 
His  brother  Zethus  had  occupied  himself  in  hunting  and  tending 
the  flocks.  Amphion  himself  is  one  of  the  most  famous  of  mythi- 
cal musicians.    Having  become  king  of  Thebes,  it  is  said  that  when 

1  Roscher,  Ausf.  Lex.  Lfg.  3,  379  [Schirmer].  (Jriginals  in  Pausanias,  Apollodorus,  and 
Hyginus. 


76  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

he  played  on  his  lyre,  stones  moved  of  their  own  accord  and  took 
their  places  in  the  wall  with  which  he  was  fortifying  the  city. 


^If^ 


Fig.  51.    Ami'Hion  and  Zethus 

...  'T  is  said  he  had  a  tuneful  tongue, 

Such  happy  intonation, 
Wherever  he  sat  down  and  sung 

He  left  a  small  plantation  ; 
Wherever  in  a  lonely  grove 

He  set  up  his  forlorn  pipes, 
The  gouty  oak  began  to  move. 

And  flounder  into  hornpipes. 

The  mountain  stirred  its  bushy  crown, 

And,  as  tradition  teaches, 
Young  ashes  pirouetted  down 

Coquetting  with  young  beeches ; 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN     -]-] 

And  briony-vine  and  ivy-wreath 

Ran  forward  to  his  rhyming, 
And  from  the  valleys  underneath 

Came  little  copses  climbing. 

The  linden  broke  her  ranks  and  rent 

The  woodbine  wreaths  that  bind  her, 
And  down  the  middle,  buzz  !  she  went 

With  all  her  bees  behind  her  : 
The  poplars,  in  long  order  due, 

With  cypress  promenaded, 
The  shock-head  willows,  two  and  two, 

By  rivers  gallopaded. 

Came  wet-shot  alder  from  the  wave. 

Came  yews,  a  dismal  coterie ; 
Each  plucked  his  one  foot  from  the  grave, 

Poussetting  with  a  sloe-tree : 
Old  elms  came  breaking  from  the  vine. 

The  vine  streamed  out  to  follow, 
And,  sweating  rosin,  plumped  the  pine 

From  many  a  cloudy  hollow. 

And  was  n't  it  a  sight  to  see, 

When,  ere  his  song  was  ended. 
Like  some  great  landslip,  tree  by  tree, 

The  country-side  descended ; 
And  shepherds  from  the  mountain-eaves 

Looked  down,  half-pleased,  half-frightened, 
As  dashed  about  the  drunken  leaves 

The  random  sunshine  lightened.^ 

The  musician's  life  was,  however,  not  all  harmony  and  happi- 
ness. Owing  to  the  pride  of  his  wife  Niobe,  daughter  of  King 
Tantalus,  there  befell  'him  and  his  house  a  crushing  calamity, 
which  is  narrated  among  the  exploits  of  Apollo  and  Diana, 

63.  Jupiter,  a  Friend  of  Man.  The  kindly  interest  evinced  by 
the  Thunderer  toward  mortals  is  displayed  in  the  story  of  Baucis 
and  Philemon.  Once  on  a  time  Jupiter,  in  human  shape,  visited 
the  land  of  Phrygia,  and  with  him  Mercury,  without  his  wings. 

1  From  Tennyson's  Amphion,   See  Horace,  Ars  Poet.  394. 


78  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

They  presented  themselves  as  weary  travelers  at  many  a  door, 
seeking  rest  and  shelter,  but  found  all  closed  ;  for  it  was  late,  and 
the  inhospitable  inhabitants  would  not  rouse  themselves  to  open 
for  their  reception.  At  last  a  small  thatched  cottage  received  them, 
where  Baucis,  a  pious  old  dame,  and  her  husband  Philemon  had 
grown  old  together.  Not  ashamed  of  their  poverty,  they  made  it 
endurable  by  moderate  desires  and  kind  dispositions.  When  the 
two  guests  crossed  the  humble  threshold  and  bowed  their  heads 
to  pass  under  the  low  door,  the  old  man  placed  a  seat,  on  which 
Baucis,  bustling  and  attentive,  spread  a  cloth,  and  begged  them  to 
sit  down.  Then  she  raked  out  the  coals  from  the  ashes,  kindled  a 
fire,  and  prepared  some  pot-herbs  and  bacon  for  them.  A  beechen 
bowl  was  filled  with  warm  water,  that  their  guests  might  wash. 
While  all  was  doing,  they  beguiled  the  time  with  conversation. 

The  old  woman  with  trembling  hand  set  the  table.  One  leg  was 
shorter  than  the  rest,  but  a  piece  of  slate  put  under  restored  the 
level.  When  it  was  steady  she  rubbed  the  table  down  with  sweet- 
smelling  herbs.  Upon  it  she  set  some  of  chaste  Minerva's  olives, 
some  cornel  berries  preserved  in  vinegar,  and  added  radishes  and 
cheese,  with  eggs  lightly  cooked  in  the  ashes.  The  meal  was  served 
in  earthen  dishes  ;  and  an  earthenware  pitcher,  with  wooden  cups, 
stood  beside  them.  When  all  was  ready  the  stew,  smoking  hot, 
was  set  on  the  table.  Some  wine,  not  of  the  oldest,  was  added, 
and  for  dessert,  apples  and  wild  honey. 

Now  while  the  repast  proceeded,  the  old  folks  were  astonished 
to  see  that  the  wine,  as  fast  as  it  was  poured  out,  renewed  itself  in 
the  pitcher  of  its  own  accord.  Struck  with  terror,  Baucis  and 
Philemon  recognized  their  heavenly  guests,  fell  on  their  knees, 
and  with  clasped  hands  implored  forgiveness  for  their  poor  enter- 
tainment. There  was  an  old  goose,  which  they  kept  as  the  guard- 
ian of  their  humble  cottage,  and  they  bethought  them  to  make 
this  a  sacrifice  in  honor  of  their  guests.  But  the  goose,  too  nimble 
for  the  old  folk,  with  the  aid  of  feet  and  wings  eluded  their  pur- 
suit and  at  last  took  shelter  between  the  gods  themselves.  They 
forbade  it  to  be  slain,  and  spoke  in  these  words :  "  We  are  gods. 
This  inhospitable  village  shall  pay  the  penalty  of  its  impiety ;  you 
alone  shall  go  free  from  the  chastisement.    Quit  your  house  and 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN     79 

come  with  us  to  the  top  of  3/onder  hill."  They  hastened  to  obey. 
The  country  behind  them  was  speedily  sunk  in  a  lake,  only  their 
own  house  left  standing.  While  they  gazed  with  wonder  at  the 
sight,  that  old  house  of  theirs  was  changed.  Columns  took  the 
place  of  the  corner  posts,  the  thatch  grew  yellow  and  appeared  a 
gilded  roof,  the  floors  became  marble,  the  doors  were  enriched 
with  carving  and  ornaments  of  gold.  Then  spoke  Jupiter  in  benig- 
nant accents :  '"  Excellent  old  man,  and  woman  worthy  of  such  a 
husband,  speak,  tell  us  your  wishes.  What  favor  have  you  to  ask 
of  us  .^  "  Philemon  took  counsel  with  Baucis  a  few  moments,  then 
declared  to  the  gods  their  common  wish.  "  We  ask  to  be  priests 
and  guardians  of  this  thy  temple,  and  that  one  and  the  same 
hour  may  take  us  both  from  life."  Their  prayer  was  granted. 
When  they  had  attained  a  great  age,  as  they  stood  one  day  before 
the  steps  of  the  sacred  edifice  and  were  telling  the  story  of  the 
place,  Baucis  saw  Philemon  begin  to  put  forth  leaves,  and  Philemon 
saw  Baucis  changing  in  like  manner.  While  still  they  exchanged 
parting  words,  a  leafy  crown  grew  over  their  heads.  ""  Farewell, 
dear  spouse,"  they  said  together,  and  at  the  same  moment  the 
bark  closed  over  their  mouths.  The  Tyanean  shepherd  still  shows 
the  two  trees,  — an  oak  and  a  linden,  standing  side  by  side.^ 

The  story  of  Baucis  and  Philemon  has  been  imitated  by  Swift 
in  a  burlesque  style,  the  actors  in  the  change  being  two  wandering 
saints,  and  the  house  being  changed  into  a  church,  of  which 
Philemon  is  made  the  parson  : 

.  .  .  They  scarce  had  spoke,  when,  fair  and  soft, 

The  roof  began  to  mount  aloft ; 

Aloft  rose  every  beam  and  rafter ; 

The  heavy  wall  climbed  slowly  after. 

The  chimney  widened  and  grew  higher, 

Became  a  steeple  with  a  spire. 

The  kettle  to  the  top  was  hoist. 

And  there  stood  fastened  to  a  joist. 

But  with  the  upside  down,  to  show 

Its  inclination  for  below  ; 

In  vain,  for  a  superior  force. 

Applied  at  bottom,  stops  its  course ; 

I  Ovid,  Metam.  8,  620-72^. 


8o  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Doomed  ever  in  suspense  to  dwell, 

'T  is  now  no  kettle,  but  a  bell. 

A  wooden  jack,  which  had  almost 

Lost  by  disuse  the  art  to  roast, 

A  sudden  alteration  feels, 

Increased  by  new  intestine  wheels ; 

And,  what  exalts  the  wonder  more. 

The  number  made  the  motion  slower ; 

The  flier,  though  't  had  leaden  feet, 

Turned  round  so  quick  you  scarce  could  see  't ; 

But  slackened  by  some  secret  power, 

Now  hardly  moves  an  inch  an  hour. 

The  jack  and  chimney,  near  allied, 

Had  never  left  each  other's  side. 

The  chimney  to  a  steeple  grown. 

The  jack  would  not  be  left  alone ; 

But  up  against  the  steeple  reared, 

Became  a  clock,  and  still  adhered ; 

And  still  its  love  to  household  cares 

By  a  shrill  voice  at  noon  declares. 

Warning  the  cook-maid  not  to  burn 

That  roast  meat  which  it  cannot  turn. 

The  groaning  chair  began  to  crawl, 

Like  a  huge  snail,  along  the  wall ; 

There  stuck  aloft  in  public  view. 

And  with  small  change,  a  pulpit  grew. 

A  bedstead  of  the  antique  mode, 

Compact  of  timber  many  a  load, 

Such  as  our  ancestors  did  use. 

Was  metamorphosed  into  pews. 

Which  still  their  ancient  nature  keep 

By  lodging  folks  disposed  to  sleep. 

64.  Juno's  Best  Gift.  What  the  queen  of  heaven  deemed  the 
greatest  blessing  reserved  for  mortals  is  narrated  in  the  beautiful 
myth  of  Biton  and  Cleobis.  One  Cydippe,  an  ancient  priestess 
of  the  white-armed  goddess,  had  desired  to  behold  the  famous 
new  statue  of  Hera  at  Argos.  Her  sons  testified  their  affection 
for  their  mother  by  yoking  themselves,  since  no  oxen  were  at 
hand,  to  her  chariot,  and  so  dragging  her  through  heat  and  dust 
many  a  weary  league  till  they  reached  the  temple,  where  stood  the 


MYTHS  OK   THE  GREAT  DIVINTITES  OE  HEAVEN     8 1 

gold  and  ivory  masterwork  of  Polyclitus.  With  admiration  the 
devoted  priestess  and  her  pious  sons  were  received  by  the  popu- 
lace crowding  round  the  statue.  The  priest  officiating  in  the 
solemn  rites  thought  meet  that  so  reverend  a  worshiper  should 
herself  approach  the  goddess,  —  ay,  should  ask  of  Hera  some 
blessing  on  her  faithful  sons  : 

.  .  .   Slowly  old  Cydippe  rose  and  cried  : 

"  Hera,  whose  priestess  I  have  been  and  am, 
Virgin  and  matron,  at  whose  angry  eyes 
Zeus  trembles,  and  the  windless  plain  of  heaven 
With  hyperborean  echoes  rings  and  roars, 
Remembering  thy  dread  nuptials,  a  wise  god, 
Golden  and  white  in  thy  new-carven  shape, 
Hear  me !  and  grant  for  these  my  pious  sons, 
Who  saw  my  tears,  and  wound  their  tender  arms 
Around  me,  and  kissed  me  calm,  and  since  no  steer 
Stayed  in  the  byre,  dragged  out  the  chariot  old, 
And  wore  themselves  the  galling  yoke,  and  brought 
Their  mother  to  the  feast  of  her  desire, 
Grant  them,  O  Hera,  thy  best  gift  of  gifts  !  " 

Whereat  the  statue  from  its  jeweled  eyes 

Lightened,  and  thunder  ran  from  cloud  to  cloud 

In  heaven,  and  the  vast  company  was  hushed. 

But  when  they  sought  for  Cleobis,  behold, 

He  lay  there  still,  and  by  his  brother's  side 

Lay  Biton,  smiling  through  ambrosial  curls, 

And  when  the  people  touched  them  they  were  dead.i 

65.  Myths  of  Minerva.  Minerva,  as  we  have  seen,^  presided 
over  the  useful  and  ornamental  arts,  both  those  of  men  —  such  as 
agriculture  and  navigation  —  and  those  of  women  —  spinning, 
weaving,  and  needlework.  She  was  also  a  warlike  divinity,  but 
favored  only  defensive  warfare.  With  Mars'  savage  love  of  vio- 
lence and  bloodshed  she,  therefore,  had  no  sympathy.  Athens, 
her  chosen  seat,  her  own  city,  was  awarded  to  her  as  the  prize  of 
a  peaceful  contest  with  Neptune,  who  also  aspired  to  it.    In  the 

1  From  The  Sons  of  Cydippe,  by  Edmund  Gosse  in  his  On  Viol  and  Flute. 
'^  §  27,  and  Commentary. 


8?  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

reign  of  Cecrops,  the  first  king  of  Athens,  the  two  deities  had 
contended  for  the  possession  of  the  city.  The  gods  decreed  that 
it  should  be  awarded  to  the  one  who  produced  the  gift  most  useful 
to  mortals.  Neptune  gave  the  horse  ;  Minerva  produced  the  olive. 
The  gods  awarded  the  city  to  the  goddess,  and  after  her  Greek 
appellation,  Athena,  it  was  named. 

66.  Arachne.  In  another  contest,  a  mortal  dared  to  come  into 
competition  with  the  gray-eyed  daughter  of  Jove.  This  was  Arachne, 
a  maiden  who  had  attained  such  skill  in  the  arts  of  carding  and 
spinning,  of  weaving  and  embroidery,  that  the  Nymphs  themselves 
would  leave  their  groves  and  fountains  to  come  and  gaze  upon  her 
work.  It  was  not  only  beautiful  when  it  was  done,  but  beautiful 
also  in  the  doing.  To  watch  her  one  would  have  said  that  Minerva 
herself  had  taught  her.  But  this  she  denied,  and  could  not  bear 
to  be  thought  a  pupil  even  of  a  goddess.  "  Let  Minerva  try  her 
skill  with  mine,"  said  she.  "  If  beaten,  I  will  pay  the  penalty." 
Minerva  heard  this  and  was  displeased.  Assuming  the  form  of 
an  old  woman,  she  appeared  to  Arachne  and  kindly  advised  her 
to  challenge  her  fellow  mortals  if  she.  would,  but  at  once  to  ask 
forgiveness  of  the  goddess.  Arachne  bade  the"  old  dame  to  keep 
her  counsel  for  others.  "  I  am  not  afraid  of  the  goddess  ;  let  her 
try  her  skill,  if  she  dare  venture."  "  She  comes,"  said  Minerva, 
and  dropping  her  disguise,  stood  confessed.  The  Nymphs  bent 
low  in  homage  and  all  the  bystanders  paid  reverence.  Arachne 
alone  was  unterrified.  A  sudden  color  dyed  her  cheek,  and  then 
she  grew  pale  ;  but  she  stood  to  her  resolve  and  rushed  on  her 
fate.  They  proceed  to  the  contest.  Each  takes  her  station  and 
attaches  the  web  to  the  beam.  Then  the  slender  shuttle  is  passed 
in  and  out  among  the  threads.  The  reed  with  its  fine  teeth  strikes 
up  the  woof  into  its  place  and  compacts  the  web.  Wool  of  Tyrian 
dye  is  contrasted  with  that  of  other  colors,  shaded  off  into  one 
another  so  adroitly  that  the  joining  deceives  the  eye.  And  the 
effect  is  like  the  bow  whose  long  arch  tinges  the  heavens,  formed 
by  sunbeams  reflected  from  the  shower,^  in  which,  where  the  colors 
meet  they  seem  as  one,  but  at  a  litde  distance  from  the  point  of 
contact  are  wholly  different. 

1  From  Ovid. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN     83 

Minerva  wove  the  scene  of  her  contest  with  Neptune  (Poseidon). 
Twelve  of  the  heavenly  powers  were  represented,  Jupiter,  with 
august  gravit}',  sitting  in  the  midst.  Neptune,  the  ruler  of  the  sea, 
held  his  trident  and  appeared  to  have  just  smitten  the  earth,  from 


Fig.  52.    Contest  of  Athena  and  Poseidon 

which  a  horse  had  leaped  forth.  The  bright-eyed  goddess  depicted 
herself  with  helmed  head,  her  aegis  covering  her  breast,  as  when 
she  had  created  the  olive  tree  with  its  berries  and  its  dark  green 
leaves. 

Amongst  these  leaves  she  made  a  Butterfly, 

With  excellent  device  and  wondrous  slight, 
Fluttering  among  the  olives  wantonly, 

That  seemed  to  live,  so  like,  it  was  in  sight ; 
The  velvet  nap  which  on  his  wings  doth  lie, 

The  silken  down  with  which  his  back  is  dight, 
His  broad  outstretched  horns,  his  hairy  thighs, 
His  glorious  colors,  and  his  glistering  eyes. 


Which  when  Arachne  saw,  as  overlaid 
And  mastered  with  workmanship  so  rare. 

She  stood  astonished  long,  ne  aught  gainsaid ; 
And  with  fast-fix^d  eyes  on  her  did  stare.^ 

J  From  Spenser's  Muiopotmos. 


84  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

So  wonderful  was  the  central  circle  of  Minerva's  web ;  and  in 
the  four  corners  were  represented  incidents  illustrating  the  dis- 
pleasure of  the  gods  at  such  presumptuous  mortals  as  had  dared  to 
contend  with  them.  These  were  meant  as  warnings  from  Minerva 
to  her  rival  to  give  up  the  contest  before  it  was  too  late. 

But  Arachne  did  not  yield.  She  filled  her  web  with  subjects 
designedly  chosen  to  exhibit  the  failings  and  errors  of  the  gods. 
One  scene  represented  Leda  caressing  the  swan  ;  and  another,- 
Danae  and  the  golden  shower.  Still  another  depicted  Europa 
deceived  by  Jupiter  under  the  disguise  of  a  bull.  Its  appearance 
was  that  of  a  real  bull,  so  naturally  was  it  wrought  and  so  natural 
the  water  in  which  it  swam. 

With  such  subjects  Arachne  filled  her  canvas,  wonderfully  well 
done  but  strongly  marking  her  presumption  and  impiety.  Minerva 
could  not  forbear  to  admire,  yet  was  indignant  at  the  insult.  She 
struck  the  web  with  her  shuttle  and  rent  it  in  pieces  ;  then,  touch- 
ing the  forehead  of  Arachne,  she  made  her  realize  her  guilt.  It 
was  more  than  mortal  could  bear ;  and  forthwith  Arachne  hanged 
herself.  "Live,  guilty  woman,"  said  Minerva,  "but  that  thou 
mayest  preserve  the  memory  of  this  lesson  continue  to  hang,  both 
thou  and  thy  descendants,  to  all  future  times."  Then,  sprinkling 
her  with  the  juices  of  aconite,  the  goddess  transformed  her  into  a 
spider,  forever  spinning  the  thread  by  which  she  is  suspended.^ 

67.  Myths  of  Mars.  The  relations  of  Mars  to  other  deities 
may  be  best  illustrated  by  passages  from  the  Iliad,  which,  generally 
speaking,  presents  him  in  no  very  favorable  light. 

68.  Mars  and  Diomede.  In  the  war  of  the  Greeks  and  the 
Trojans,^  the  cause  of  the  former  was  espoused  by  Minerva,  of 
the  latter  by  Mars.  Among  the  chieftains  of  the  Greeks  in  a 
certain  battle,  Diomede,  son  of  Tydeus,  was  prominent.  Now 
when  Mars,  scourge  of  mortals,  beheld  noble  Diomede,  he  made 
straight  at  him. 

.  .  .  And  when  they  were  come  nigh  in  onset  on  one  another,  first  Mars 
thrust  over  the  yoke  and  horses'  reins  with  spear  of  bronze,  eager  to  take  away 
his  life.  But  the  bright-eyed  goddess  Minerva  with  her  hand  seized  the  spear 
and  thrust  it  up  over  the  car,  to  spend  itself  in  vain.    Next  Diomede  of  the 

1  Ovid,  Metam.  6,  1-145.  "^  \  200. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN     85 


loud  war  cry  attacked  with  spear  of  bronze ;  and  Minerva  drave  it  home  against 
Mars'  nethermost  belly,  where  his  taslets  were  girt  about  him.  There  smote 
he  him  and  wounded  him,  rending  through  his  fair  skin,  —  and  plucked  forth 
the  spear  again.  Then  brazen  Mars  bellowed  loud  as  nine  thousand  warriors 
or  ten  thousand  cry  in  battle  as  they  join  in  strife  and  fray.  Thereat  trem- 
bling gat  hold  of  Achaeans  and  Trojans  for  fear,  so  mightily  bellowed  Mars 
insatiate  of  battle. 

Even  as  gloomy  mist  appeareth  from  the  clouds  when  after  heat  a  stormy 
wind  ariseth,  even  so  to  Tydeus'  son  Diomede  brazen  Mars  appeared  amid 
clouds,  faring  to  wide  Heaven.  Swiftly 
came  he  to  the  gods'  dwelling,  steep 
Olympus,  and  sat  beside  Jupiter,  son 
of  Cronus,  with  grief  at  heart,  and 
showed  the  immortal  blood  flowing 
from  the  wound,  and  piteously  spake 
to  him  winged  words  :  "  Father  Jupi- 
ter, hast  thou  no  indignation  to  behold 
these  violent  deeds .''  For  ever  cruelly 
suffer  we  gods  by  one  another's  de- 
vices, in  showing  men  grace.  With 
thee  are  we  all  at  variance,  because 
thou  didst  beget  that  reckless  maiden 
and  baleful,  whose  thought  is  ever 
of  iniquitous  deeds.  For  all  the  other 
gods  that  are  in  Olympus  hearken  to 
thee,  and  we  are  subject  every  one ; 
only  her  thou  chastenest  not,  neither 
in  deed  nor  word,  but  settest  her  on, 
because  this  pestilent  one  is  thine 
own  offspring.  Now  hath  she  urged 
on  Tydeus'  son,  even  overweening 
Diomede,  to  rage  furiously  against 
the  immortal  gods.  The  Cyprian  first 
he  wounded  in  close  fight,  in  the  wrist  of  her  hand,  and  then  assailed  he  me, 
even  me,  with  the  might  of  a  god.  Howbeit  my  swift  feet  bare  me  away ;  else 
had  I  long  endured  anguish  there  amid  the  grisly  heaps  of  dead,  or  else  had 
lived  strengthless  from  the  smitings  of  the  spear." 

Then  Jupiter  the  cloud-gatherer  looked  sternly  at  him,  and  said  :  "  Nay,  thou 
renegade,  sit  not  by  me  and  whine.  Most  hateful  to  me  art  thou  of  all  gods 
that  dwell  in  Olympus ;  thou  ever  lovest  strife  and  wars  and  battles.  Truly 
thy  mother's  spirit  is  intolerable,  unyielding,  even  Juno's ;  her  can  I  scarce 
rule  with  words.    Therefore  I   deem  that  by  her  prompting  thou  art  in  this 


Fig.  53.    Athen.\ 


86  THE  CLx\SSIC  MYTHS 

plight.  Yet  will  I  no  longer  endure  to  see  thee  in  anguish;  mine  offspring 
art  thou,  and  to  me  thy  mother  bare  thee.  But  wert  thou  born  of  any  other 
god  unto  this  violence,  long  ere  this  hadst  thou  been  lower  than  the  sons  of 
Heaven." 

So  spake  he  and  bade  Paean  heal  him.  And  Paean  laid  assuaging  drugs 
upon  the  wound,  and  healed  him,  seeing  he  was  in  no  wise  of  mortal  mold. 
Even  as  fig  juice  maketh  haste  to  thicken  white  milk,  that  is  liquid  but  cur- 
dleth  speedily  as  a  man  stirreth,  even  so  swiftly  healed  he  impetuous  Mars. 
And  Hebe  bathed  him  and  clothed  him  in  gracious  raiment,  and  he  sate  down 
by  Jupiter,  son  of  Cronus,  glorying  in  his  might. 

Then  fared  the  twain  back  to  the  mansion  of  great  Jupiter,  even  Juno  and 
Minerva,  having  stayed  Mars,  scourge  of  mortals,  from  his  man-slaying.^ 

69.  Mars  and  Minerva.  It  would  seem  that  the  insatiate  son  of 
Juno  should  have  learned  by  this  sad  experience  to  avoid  measur- 
ing arms  with  the  aegis-bearing  Minerva.  But  he  renewed  the  con- 
test at  a  later  period  in  the  fortunes  of  the  Trojan  War : 

.  .  .  Jupiter  knew  what  was  coming  as  he  sat  upon  Olympus,  and  his  heart 
within  him  laughed  pleasantly  when  he  beheld  that  strife  of  gods.  Then  no 
longer  stood  they  asunder,  for  Mars,  piercer  of  shields,  began  the  battle  and 
first  made  for  Minerva  with  his  bronze  spear,  and  spake  a  taunting  word: 
"  Wherefore,  O  dogfly,  dost  thou  match  gods  with  gods  in  strife,  with  stormy 
daring,  as  thy  great  spirit  moveth  thee?  Rememberest  thou  not  how  thou 
movedst  Diomede,  Tydeus'  son,  to  wound  me,  and  thyself  didst  take  a  visible 
spear  and  thrust  it  straight  at  me  and  pierce  through  my  fair  skin  ?  Therefore 
deem  I  now  that  thou  shalt  pay  me  for  all  that  thou  hast  done." 

Thus  saying,  he  smote  on  the  dread  tasseled  aegis  that  not  even  the  light- 
ning of  Jupiter  can  overcome  —  thereon  smote  blood-stained  Mars  with  his 
long  spear.  But  she,  giving  back,  grasped  with  stout  hand  a  stone  that  lay 
upon  the  plain,  black,  rugged,  huge,  which  men  of  old  time  set  to  be  the  land- 
mark of  a  field ;  this  hurled  she,  and  smote  impetuous  Mars  on  the  neck,  and 
unstrung  his  limbs.  Seven  roods  he  covered  in  his  fall,  and  soiled  his  hair 
with  dust,  and  his  armor  rang  upon  him.  And  Minerva  laughed,  and  spake  to 
him  winged  words  exultingly :  "  Fool,  not  even  yet  hast  thou  learnt  how  far 
better  than  thou  I  claim  to  be,  that  thus  thou  matchest  thy  might  with  mine. 
Thus  shalt  thou  satisfy  thy  mother's  curses,  who  deviseth  mischief  against 
thee  in  her  wrath,  for  that  thou  hast  left  the  Achaeans  and  givest  the  proud 
Trojans  aid." 

1  Iliad,  5,  850  et  seq.  (Lang,  Leaf,  and  Myers'  translation).  In  accordance  with  the  sys- 
tem of  nomenclature  adopted  in  this  work,  Latin  equivalents  are  given,  wherever  possible, 
for  Greek  names. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINFITES  OF  HEAVEN     87 

Thus  having  said,  she  turned  from  him  her  shining  eyes.  Him  did  Venus, 
daughter  of  Jupiter,  take  by  the  hand  and  lead  away,  groaning  continually,  for 
scarce  gathered  he  his  spirit  back  to  him.^ 

70.  The  Fortunes  of  Cadmus.  Toward  mortals  Mars  could  show 
himself,  on  occasion,  as  vindictive  as  his  fair  foe,  the  unwearied 
daughter  of  Jove.  This  fact  not  only  Cadmus,  who  slew  a  serpent 
sacred  to  Mars,  but  all  the  family  of  Cadmus  found  out  to  their  cost. 

When  Europa  was  carried  away  by  Jupiter  in  the  guise  of  a  bull, 
her  father  Agenor  commanded  his  son  Cadmus  to  go  in  search  of 


Fig.  54.   Cadmus  slaying  the  Dragon 

her  and  not  to  return  without  her.  Cadmus  sought  long  and  far ; 
then,  not  daring  to  return  unsuccessful,  consulted  the  oracle  of 
Apollo  to  know  what  country  he  should  settle  in.  The  oracle  in- 
formed him  that  he  would  find  a  cow  in  the  field,  should  follow  her 
wherever  she  might  wander,  and  where  she  stopped  should  build  a 
city  and  call  it  Thebes.  Cadmus  had  hardly  left  the  Castalian  cave, 
from  which  the  oracle  was  delivered,  when  he  saw  a  young  cow 
slowly  walking  before  him.  He  followed  her  close,  offering  at  the 
same  time  his  prayers  to  Phoebus.  The  cow  went  on  till  she  passed 

1  Iliad,  21,  390  (Lang,  Leaf,  and  Myers'  translation). 


88  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

the  shallow  channel  of  Cephissus  and  came  out  into  the  plain  of 
Panope.  There  she  stood  still,  Cadmus  gave  thanks,  and  stooping 
down  kissed  the  foreign  soil,  then  lifting  his  eyes,  greeted  the  sur- 
rounding mountains.  Wishing  to  offer  a  sacrifice  to  his  protecting 
deity,  Minerva,  he  sent  his  servants  to  seek  pure  water  for  a  liba- 
tion. Near  by  there  stood  an  ancient  grove  which  had  never  been 
profaned  by  the  ax,  in  the  midst  of  which  was  a  cave  thick  cov- 
ered with  the  growth  of  bushes,  its  roof  forming  a  low  arch  from 
beneath  which  burst  forth  a  founfciin  of  purest  water.  But  in  the 
cave  lutked  a  serpent  with  crested  head,  and  scales  glittering  like 
gold  ;  his  eyes  shone  like  fire  ;  his  body  was  swollen  with  venom  ; 
he  vibrated  a  triple  tongue  and  showed  a  triple  row  of  teeth.  No 
sooner  had  the  Tyrians  dipped  their  pitchers  in  the  fountain  and 
the  ingushing  waters  had  made  a  sound,  than  the  monster,  twisting 
his  scaly  body  in  a  huge  coil,  darted  upon  them  and  destroyed 
some  with  his  fangs,  others  in  his  folds,  and  others  with  his 
poisonous  breath, 

Cadmus,  having  waited  for  the  return  of  his  men  till  midday, 
went  in  search  of  them.  When  he  entered  the  wood  and  saw  their 
lifeless  bodies  and  the  dragon  with  his  bloody  jaws,  not  knowing 
that  the  serpent  was  sacred  to  Mars,  scourge  of  mortals,  he  lifted 
a  huge  stone  and  threw  it  with  all  his  force  at  the  monster.  The 
blow  made  no  impression.  Minerva,  however,  was  present,  unseen, 
to  aid  her  worshiper.  Cadmus  next  threw  his  javelin,  which  pene- 
trated the  serpent's  scales  and  pierced  through  to  his  entrails. 
The  monster  attempted  to  draw  out  the  weapon  with  his  mouth, 
but  broke  it  off,  leaving  the  iron  point  rankling  in  his  flesh.  His 
neck  swelled  with  rage,  bloody  foam  covered  his  jaws,  and  the 
breath  of  his  nostrils  poisoned  the  air  around.  As  he  moved  on- 
ward, Cadmus  retreated  before  him,  holding  his  spear  opposite  to 
the  serpent's  opened  jaws.  At  last,  watching  his  chance,  the  hero 
thrust  the  spear  at  a  moment  when  the  animal's  head  thrown  back 
came  against  the  trunk  of  a  tree,  and  so  succeeded  in  pinning  him 
to  its  side. 

While  Cadmus  stood  over  his  conquered  foe,  contemplating  its 
vast  size,  a  voice  was  heard  (from  whence  he  knew  not,  but  it  was 
Minerva's)  commanding  him  to  take  the  dragon's  teeth  and  sow 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN     89 

them  in  the  earth.  Scarce  had  he  done  so  when  the  clods  began 
to  move  and  the  points  of  spears  to  appear  above  the  surface. 
Next,  helmets  with  their  nodding  plumes  came  up  ;  next,  the 
shoulders  and  breasts  and  limbs  of  men  with  weapons,  and  in  time 
a  harvest  of  armed  warriors.  Cadmus  prepared  to  encounter  a  new 
enemy,  but  one  of  them  said  to  him,  "Meddle  not  with  our  civil 
war."  With  that  he  who  had  spoken  smote  one  of  his  earthborn 
brothers  with  a  sword,  and  he  himself  fell  pierced  with  an  arrow 
from  another.  The  latter  fell  victim  to  a  fourth,  and  in  like  man- 
ner the  whole  crowd  dealt  with  each  other  till  all  but  five  fell  slain. 
These  five  joined  with  Cadmus  in  building  his  city,  to  which  they 
gave  the  name  appointed. 

As  penance  for  the  destruction  of  this  sacred  serpent,  Cadmus 
served  Mars  for  a  period  of  eight  years.  After  he  had  been  ab- 
solved of  his  impiety, 
Minerva  set  him  over 
the  realm  of  Thebes, 
and  Jove  gave  him  to 
wife  Harmonia,  the 
daughter  of  Venus 
and  Mars.  The  gods 
left  Olympus  to  honor 
the  occasion  with  their 


Fig.  55.    Harmonia  in  Company  of  Deities 


presence  ;  and  Vulcan  presented  the  bride  with  a  necklace  of  sur- 
passing brilliancy,  his  own  workmanship.  Of  this  marriage  were 
born  four  daughters,  Semele,  Ino,  Autonoe,  and  Agave,  and  one 
son,  Polydorus.  But  in  spite  of  the  atonement  made  by  Cadmus,  a 
fatality  hung  over  the  family.  The  very  necklace  of  Vulcan  seemed 
to  catch  the  spirit  of  ill  luck  and  convey  a  baleful  influence  to  such 
as  wore  it.  Semele,  Ino,  Actaeon  the  son  of  Autonoe,  and  Pen- 
theus  the  son  of  Agave,  all  perished  by  violence.  Cadmus  and 
Harmonia  quitted  Thebes,  grown  odious  to  them,  and  emigrated  to 
the  country  of  the  Enchelians,  who  received  them  with  honor  and 
made  Cadmus  their  king.  But  the  misfortunes  of  their  children 
still  weighing  upon  their  minds,  Cadmus  one  day  exclaimed,  "If  a 
serpent's  life  is  so  dear  to  the  gods,  I  would  I  were  myself  a  ser- 
pent."   No  sooner  had  he  uttered  the  words  than  he  began  to 


90 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


change  his  form.  Harmonia,  beholding  it,  prayed  the  gods  to  let 
her  share  his  fate.  Both  became  serpents.  It  is  said  that,  mindful 
of  their  origin,  they  neither  avoid  the  presence  of  man  nor  do 
they  injure  any  one.  But  the  curse  appears  not  to  have  passed 
from  their  house  until  the  sons  of  their  great-great-grandson 
CEdipus  had  by  fraternal  strife  ended  themselves  and  the  family.^ 
71.  Myths  of  Vulcan.  The  stories  of  Vulcan  are  few,  although  in- 
cidents illustrating  his  character  are  sufficiently  numerous.   Accord- 


(._. 


•^W,,!^ 


.el'*'  {% 


Fig.  56.   The  Forge  of  Vulcan 
From  the  painting  by  Velasquez 

ing  to  an  account  already  given,  Vulcan,  because  of  his  lameness, 
was  cast  out  of  Heaven  by  his  mother  Juno.  The  sea-goddesses 
Eurynome  and  Thetis  took  him  mercifully  to  themselves,  and  for 
nine  years  cared  for  him,  while  he  plied  his  trade  and  gained  pro- 
ficiency in  it.  In  order  to  revenge  himself  upon  the  mother  who 
had  so  despitefully  used  him,  he  fashioned  in  the  depths  of  the 
sea  a  throne  of  cunning  device,  which  he  sent  to  his  mother.  She, 
gladly  accepting  the  glorious  gift,  sat  down  upon  it,  to  find  out 

1  Ovid,  Metam.  3,  1-137  ;  4,  563-614, 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN     91 


that  straightway  all  manner  of  invisible  chains  and  fetters  wound 
and  clasped  themselves  about  her  so  that  she  could  not  rise.  The 
assistance  of  the  gods  was  of  no  avail  to  release  her.  Then  Mars 
sought  to  bring  Vulcan  to  Heaven  by  force  that  he  might  undo  his 
trickery ;  but  before  the  flames  of  the  fire-god,  the  impetuous  war- 
rior speedily  retreated.  One  god,  however,  the  jovial  Bacchus,  was 
dear  to  the  blacksmith.  He  drenched  Vulcan  with  wine,  conducted 
him  to  Olympus,  and  by  persuasion  caused  him  to  set  the  queen  of 
gods  and  men  at  liberty. 

That  Vulcan  was  not  permanently  hostile  to  Juno  is  shown 
by  the  services  that  on  various  occasions  he  rendered  her.  He 
forged  the  shield  of  her  favorite  Achilles  ;  and,  at  her  instance,  he 
undertook  a  contest  against 
the  river  Xanthus.  Homer  ^ 
describes  the  burning  of 
elms  and  willow  trees  and 
tamarisks,  the  parching  •  of 
the  plains,  the  bubbling  of 
the  waters,  that  signalized  the 
fight,  and  how  the  eels  and 
other  fish  were  afflicted  by 
Vulcan  till  Xanthus  in  an- 
guish cried  for  quarter. 

72.  Myths  of  Apollo.  The 
myths  which  cluster  about  the 
name  of  Phoebus  Apollo  illustrate,  first,  his  birth  and  the  wanderings 
of  his  mother,  Latona  ;  secondly,  his  victory  over  darkness  and  win- 
ter ;  thirdly,  his  gifts  to  man,  —  youth  and  vigor,  the  sunshine  of 
spring,  and  the  vegetation  of  early  summer ;  fourthly,  his  baleful 
influence,  —  the  sunstroke  and  drought  of  midsummer,  the  miasma 
of  autumn  ;  fifthly,  his  life  on  earth,  as  friend  and  counselor  of 
mankind,  —  healer,  soothsayer,  and  musician,  prototype  of  manly 
beauty,  and  lover  of  beautiful  women. 

73.  The  Wanderings  of  Latona.  Persecuted  by  the  jealousy  of 
the  white-armed  Juno,  Latona  fled  from  land  to  land.  At  last,  bear- 
ing in  her  arms  the  infant  progeny  of  Jove,  she  reached  Lycia, 

1  Iliad,  2,  1335. 


Fig.  57.   A  Sacrifice  to  Apollo 


92  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

weary  with  her  burden  and  parched  with  thirst.  There  the  follow- 
ing adventure  ensued.  By  chance  the  persecuted  goddess  espied 
in  the  bottom  of  the  valley  a  pond  of  clear  water,  where  the  coun- 
try people  were  at  work  gathering  willows  and  osiers.  She  ap- 
proached and  kneeling  on  the  bank  would  have  slaked  her  thirst 
in  the  cool  stream,  but  the  rustics  forbade  her.  "Why  do  you 
refuse  me  water  .?"  said  she.  "  Water  is  free  to  all.  Yet  I  ask  it  of 
you  as  a  favor.  I  have  no  intention  of  washing  my  limbs  in  it, 
weary  though  they  be,  but  only  of  quenching  my  thirst.  A  draft 
of  water  would  be  nectar  to  me,  and  I  would  own  myself  indebted 
to  you  for  life  itself.  Let  these  infants  move  your  pity,  who  stretch 
out  their  little  arms  as  if  to  plead  for  me." 

But  the  clowns  persisted  in  their  rudeness;  they  added  jeers,, 
and  threatened  violence  if  she  did  not  leave  the  place.  They  waded 
into  the  pond  and  stirred  up  the  mud  with  their  feet,  so  as  to 
make  the  water  unfit  to  drink.  Enraged,  the  goddess  no  longer 
supplicated  the  clowns,  but  lifting  her  hands  to  Heaven  exclaimed, 
"  May  they  never  quit  that  pool  but  pass  their  lives  there  !"  And 
it  came  to  pass  accordingly.  They  still  live  in  the  water,  sometimes 
totally  submerged,  then  raising  their  heads  above  the  surface  or 
swimming  upon  it ;  sometimes  coming  out  upon  the  bank,  but  soon 
leaping  back  again  into  the  water.  Their  voices  are  harsh,  their 
throats  bloated,  their  mouths  distended  by  constant  railing ;  their 
necks  have  shrunk  up  and  disappeared,  and  their  heads  are  joined 
to  their  bodies.  Their  backs  are  green,  their  disproportioned  bellies 
white.    They  dwell  as  frogs  in  the  slimy  pool.^ 

74.  Apollo,  the  Light  Triumphant.  Soon  after  his  birth  the 
sun-god  spent  a  year  among  the  Hyperboreans,  whose  shining  land 
has  been  already  described.^  On  his  return,  slaying  with  his  golden 
arrows  the  Python  that  had  infested  the  slopes  near  Delphi,  he 
sang  for  the  first  time  that  song  of  victory  which,  as  the  Pcean, 
is  still  among  all  nations  synonymous  with  jubilation,  praise,  and 
thanksgiving.  In  his  conflict  with  another  monster  of  darkness 
and  winter,  the  god  of  the  silver  bow  had  the  assistance  of  his 
sister  Diana.  By  their  unerring  fiery  darts  they  subdued  the  giant 
Tit>-us,  who  not  only  had   obstructed  the  peaceful  ways  to  the 

1  Ovid,  Metam.  6,  313-381.  2§  30. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN 


93 


oracle  of  Delphi,  but  had  ventured  to  insult  the  mother  of  the  twin 
deities.  They  overthrew  also  the  Aloadae,  Otus  and  Ephialtes,  sons 
of  Iphimedia  and  Neptune.  These  monsters,  the  reputed  sons  of 
Aloeus,  represent,  perhaps,  the  unregulated  forces  of  vegetation  ; 
they  were  renowned  for  their  strength,  stature,  and  courage.  They 
grew  at  the  rate  of  three  cubits  in  height  and  one  in  breadth 
every  year  ;  and,  when  nine  years  of  age,  they  attempted,  by  piling 
Mount  Ossa  upon  Olympus,  and  Mount  Pelion  on  top,  to  scale 
the  skies  and  dethrone  the  immortals.  It  is  reported  that  not 
Apollo  and  Diana,  but  Jupiter  himself  with 
his  lightning  slew  them.  They  atoned  for 
their  presumption  in  Hades,  where,  bound 
by  serpents  to  a  pillar,  they  were  tormented 
by  the  perpetual  hooting  of  a  screech  owl.^ 

75.  Hyacinthus.  The  fiery  force  of  the 
Far-darter  was  not  felt  by  the  monsters 
of  darkness  alone.  His  friendship  for  the 
young  and  the  vigorous  was  frequently  as 
dangerous  as  it  was  dear  to  the  objects  of  it. 
He  was,  for  instance,  passionately  fond  of  a 
youth  named  Hyacinthus.  The  god  of  the 
silver  bow  accompanied  the  lad  in  his  sports, 
carried  the  nets  when  he  went  fishing,  led 
the  dogs  when  he  went  to  hunt,  followed 
him  in  his  excursions  in  the  mountains,  and 
neglected  for  him  both  lyre  and  arrows.  One 
day  they  played  a  game  of  quoits  ;  Apollo,  heaving  aloft  the  discus 
with  strength  mingled  with  skill,  sent  it  high  and  far.  Hyacinthus, 
excited  with  the  sport  and  eager  to  make  his  throw,  ran  forward  to 
seize  the  missile  ;  but  it  bounded  from  the  earth  and  struck  him 
in  the  forehead.  He  fainted  and  fell.  The  god,  as  pale  as  himself, 
raised  him  and  tried  all  his  art  to  stanch  the  wound  and  retain  the 
flitting  life,  but  in  vain.  As  when  one  has  broken  the  stem  of  a 
lily  in  the  garden  it  hangs  its  head  and  turns  its  flowers  to  the 
earth,  so  the  head  of  the  dying  boy,  as  if  too  heavy  for  his  neck, 
fell  over  on  his  shoulder.   "Thou  diest.  Hyacinth,"  spake  Phoebus, 

1  Roscher,  Ausf.  Lex.  Lfg.  2,  254,  Article  Aloadce  [Schultz]. 


Fig.  58.    Apollo  with 
Hyacinthus 


94  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

"  robbed  of  thy  youth  by  me.  Would  that  I  could  die  for  thee  !  But 
since  that  may  not  be,  my  lyre  shall  celebrate  thee,  my  song  shall 
tell  thy  fate,  and  thou  shalt  become  a  flower  inscribed  with  my  re- 
gret," While  the  golden  god  spoke,  the  blood  which  had  flowed 
on  the  ground  and  stained  the  herbage  ceased  to  be  blood ;  and  a 
flower  of  hue  more  beautiful  than  the  Tyrian  sprang  up,  resembling 
the  lily,  save  that  this  is  purple  and  that  silvery  white.  Phoebus 
then,  to  confer  still  greater  honor,  marked  the  petals  with  his  sor- 
row, inscribing  "  Ai !  ai ! "  upon  them.  The  flower.bears  the  name 
of  Hyacinthus,  and  with  returning  spring  revives  the  memory  of 
his  fate.i 

It  was  said  that  Zephyrus  (the  west  wind),  who  was  also  fond 
of  Hyacinthus  and  jealous  of  his  preference  of  Apollo,  blew  the 
quoit  out  of  its  course  to  make  it  strike  Hyacinthus. 

While  this  youth  met  his  death  by  accident,  another  of  Apollo's 
favorites,  his  own  son,  brought  death  upon  himself  by  presumption. 
The  story  is  as  follows  : 

76.  Phaethon  ^  was  the  son  of  Apollo  and  the  nyrnph  Clymene. 
One  day  Epaphus,  the  son  of  Jupiter  and  lo,^  scoffed  at  the  idea 
of  Phaethon 's  being  the  son  of  a  god.  Phaethon  complained  of 
the  insult  to  his  mother  Clymene.  She  sent  him  to  Phoebus  to  ask 
for  himself  whether  he  had  not  been  truly  informed  concerning 
his  parentage.  Gladly  Phaethon  traveled  toward  the  regions  of 
sunrise  and  gained  at  last  the  palace  of  the  Sun.  He  approached 
his  father's  presence,  but  stopped  at  a  distance,  for  the  light  was 
more  than  he  could  bear.  Phoebus  Apollo,  arrayed  in  purple,  sat 
on  a  throne  that  glittered  with  diamonds.  Beside  him  stood  the 
Day,  the  Month,  the  Year,  the  Hours,  and  the  Seasons.  Sur- 
rounded by  these  attendants,  the  Sun  beheld  the  youth  dazzled 
with  the  novelty  and  splendor  of  the  scene,  and  inquired  the  pur- 
pose of  his  errand.  The  youth  replied,  "  Oh,  light  of  the  boundless 
world,  Phoebus,  my  father  —  if  thou  dost  yield  me  that  name  — 
give  me  some  proof,  I  beseech  thee,  by  which  I  may  be  known 
as  thine !  "  He  ceased.  His  father,  laying  aside  the  beams  that 
shone  around  his  head,  bade  him  approach,  embraced  him,  owned 
him  for  his  son,  and  swore  by  the  river  Styx^  that  whatever  proof 

1  Ovid,  Metam.  lo,  162-219.  ^Ovid,  Metam.  2,  1-400.  3§  ^^. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN     95 

he  might  ask  should  be  granted.  Phaethon  immediately  asked  to 
be  permitted  for  one  day  to  drive  the  chariot  of  the  sun.  The 
father  repented  of  his  promise  and  tried  to  dissuade  the  boy  by 
telling  him  the  perils  of  the  undertaking.  "  None  but  myself,"  he 
said,  "  may  drive  the  flaming  car  of  day.  Not  even  Jupiter,  whose 
terrible  right  arm  hurls  the  thunderbolts.  The  first  part  of  the  way 
is  steep  and  such  as  the  horses  when  fresh  in  the  morning  can 
hardly  climb ;  the  middle  is  high  up  in  the  heavens,  whence  I 
myself  can  scarcely,  without  alarm,  look  down  and  behold  the  earth 
and  sea  stretched  beneath  me.  The  last  part  of  the  road  descends 
rapidly  and  requires  most  careful  driving.  Tethys,  who  is  waiting 
to  receive  me,  often  trembles  for  me  lest  I  should  fall  headlong. 
Add  to  this  that  the  heaven  is  all  the  time  turning  round  and  carry- 
ing the  stars  with  it.  Couldst  thou  keep  thy  course  while  the  sphere 
revolved  beneath  thee  ?  The  road,  also,  is  through  the  midst  of 
frightful  monsters.  Thou  must  pass  by  the  horns  of  the  Bull,  in 
front  of  the  Archer,  and  near  the  Lion's  jaws,  and  where  the 
Scoi"pion  stretches  its  arms  in  one  direction  and  the  Crab  in 
another.  Nor  wilt  thou  find  it  easy  to  guide  those  horses,  with 
their  breasts  full  of  fire  that  they  breathe  forth  from  their  mouths 
and  nostrils.  Beware,  my  son,  lest  I  be  the  donor  of  a  fatal  gift ; 
recall  the  request  while  yet  thou  canst."  He  ended  ;  but  the  youth 
rejected  admonition  and  held  to  his  demand.  So,  having  resisted 
as  long  as  he  might,  Phoebus  at  last  led  the  way  to  where  stood 
the  lofty  chariot. 

It  was  of  gold,  the  gift  of  Vulcan,  —  the  axle  of  gold,  the  pole 
and  wheels  of  gold,  the  spokes  of  silver.  Along  the  seat  were  rows 
of  chrysolites  and  diamonds,  reflecting  the  brightness  of  the  sun. 
While  the  daring  youth  gazed  in  admiration,  the  early  Dawn  threw 
open  the  purple  doors  of  the  east  and  showed  the  pathway  strewn 
with  roses.  The  stars  withdrew,  marshaled  by  the  Daystar,  which 
last  of  all  retired  also.  The  father,  when  he  saw  the  earth  beginning 
to  glow  and  the  Moon  preparing  to  retire,  ordered  the  Hours  to 
harness  up  the  horses.  They  led  forth  from  the  lofty  stalls  the 
steeds  full  fed  with  ambrosia,  and  attached  the  reins.  Then  the 
father,  smearing  the  face  of  his  son  with  a  powerful  unguent,  made 
him  capable  of  enduring  the  brightness  of  the  flame.    He  set  the 


96  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

rays  on  the  lad's  head,  and,  with  a  foreboding  sigh,  told  him  to 
spare  the  whip  and  hold  tight  the  reins ;  not  to  take  the  straight 
road  between  the  five  circles,  but  to  turn  off  to  the  left ;  to  keep 
within  the  limit  of  the  middle  zone  and  avoid  the  northern  and  the 
southern  alike ;  finally,  to  keep  in  the  well-worn  ruts  and  to  drive 
neither  too  high  nor  too  low,  for  the  middle  course  was  safest 
and  best.^ 

Forthwith  the  agile  youth  sprang  into  the  chariot,  stood  erect, 
and  grasped  the  reins  with  delight,  pouring  out  thanks  to  his 
reluctant  parent.  But  the  steeds  soon  perceived  that  the  load  they 
drew  was  lighter  than  usual ;  and  as  a  ship  without  ballast  is  tossed 
hither  and  thither  on  the  sea,  the  chariot,  without  its  accustomed 
weight,  was  dashed  about  as  if  empty.  The  horses  rushed  headlong 
and  left  the  traveled  road.  Then,  for  the  first  time,  the  Great  and 
Little  Bears  were  scorched  with  heat,  and  would  fain,  if  it  were 
possible,  have  plunged  into  the  water  ;  and  the  Serpent  which  lies 
coiled  round  the  north  pole,  torpid  and  harmless,  grew  warm,  and 
with  warmth  felt  its  rage  revive.  Bootes,  they  say,  fled  away, 
though  encumbered  with  his  plow  and  unused  to  rapid  motion. 

When  hapless  Phaethon  looked  down  upon  the  earth,  now  spread- 
ing in  vast  extent  beneath  him,  he  grew  pale,  and  his  knees  shook 
with  terror.  He  lost  his  self-command  and  knew  not  whether  to 
draw  tight  the  reins  or  throw  them  loose  ;  he  forgot  the  names  of 
the  horses.  But  when  he  beheld  the  monstrous  forms  scattered 
over  the  surface  of  heaven,  —  the  Scorpion  extending  two  great 
arms,  his  tail,  and  his  crooked  claws  over  the  space  of  two  signs 
of  the  zodiac,  —  when  the  boy  beheld  him,  reeking  with  poison 
and  menacing  v/ith  fangs,  his  courage  failed,  and  the  reins  fell 
from  his  hands.  The  horses,  unrestrained,  went  off  into  unknown 
regions  of  the  sky  in  among  the  stars,  hurling  the  chariot  over 
pathless  places,  now  up  in  high  heaven,  now  down  almost  to  the 
earth.  The  moon  saw  with  astonishment  her  brother's  chariot 
running  beneath  her  own.  The  clouds  began  to  smoke.  The 
forest-clad  mountains  burned,  —  Athos  and  Taurus  and  Tmolus 
and  CEte  ;  Ida,  once  celebrated  for  fountains  ;  the  Muses'  mountain 
Helicon,  and  Haemus  ;  .^tna,  with  fires  within  and  without,  and 

1  Medio  tutissmtus  ibis.  —  Ovid. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN     97 

Parnassus,  with  his  two  peaks,  and  Rhodope,  forced  at  last  to  part 
with  his  snowy  crown.  Her  cold  climate  was  no  protection  to 
Scythia ;  Caucasus  burned,  and  Ossa  and  Pindus,  and,  greater 
than  both,  Olympus,  —  the  Alps  high  in  air,  and  the  Apennines 
crowned  with  clouds. 

Phaethon  beheld  the  world  on  fire  and  felt  the  heat  intolerable. 
Then,  too,  it  is  said,  the  people  of  ^Ethiopia  became  black  because 
the  blood  was  called  by  the  heat  so  suddenly  to  the  surface  ;  and 
the  Libyan  desert  was  dried  up  to  the  condition  in  which  it  remains 
to  this  day.  The  Nymphs  of  the  fountains,  with  disheveled  hair, 
mourned  their  waters,  nor  were  the  rivers  safe  beneath  their  banks  ; 


j^     / 


K^ 


I    ell  k         V    '  y    ' 


■j^^ 


Fig.  59.   The  P^all  of  Phaethon 

Tanai's  smoked,  and  Cai'cus,  Xanthus,  and  Masander ;  Babylonian 
Euphrates  and  Ganges,  Tagus,  with  golden  sands,  and  Cayster, 
where  the  swans  resort.  Nile  fled  away  and  hid  his  head  in  the 
desert,  and  there  it  still  remains  concealed.  Where  he  used  to  dis- 
charge his  waters  through  seven  mouths  into  the  sea,  seven  dry 
channels  alone  remained.  The  earth  cracked  open,  and  through 
the  chinks  light  broke  into  Tartarus  and  frightened  the  king  of 
shadows  and  his  queen.  The  sea  shrank  up.  Even  Nereus  and  his 
wife  Doris  with  the  Nereids,  their  daughters,  sought  the  deepest 
caves  for  refuge.  Thrice  Neptune  essayed  to  raise  his  head  above 
the  surface  and  thrice  was  driven  back  by  the  heat.  Earth,  sur- 
rounded as  she  was  by  waters,  yet  with  head  and  shoulders  bare, 
screening  her  face  with  her  hand,  looked  up  to  heaven,  and  with 


98  THE  CLASSIC   MYTHS 

husky  voice  prayed  Jupiter,  if  it  were  his  will  that  she  should 
perish  by  fire,  to  end  her  agony  at  once  by  his  thunderbolts,  or 
else  to  consider  his  own  Heaven,  how  both  the  poles  were  smok- 
ing that  sustained  his  palace,  and  that  all  must  fall  if  they  were 
destroyed. 

Earth,  overcome  with  heat  and  thirst,  could  say  no  more.  Then 
Jupiter,  calling  the  gods  to  witness  that  all  was  lost  unless  some 
speedy  remedy  were  applied,,  thundered,  brandished  a  lightning 
bolt  in  his  right  hand,  launched  it  against  the  charioteer,  and  struck 
him  at  the  same  moment  from  his  seat  and  from  existence. 
Phaethon,  with  his  hair  on  fire,  fell  headlong,  like  a  shooting  star 
which  marks  the  heavens  with  its  brightness  as  it  falls,  and  Erida- 
nus,  the  great  river,  received  him  and  cooled  his  burning  frame. 
His  sisters,  the  Heliades,  as  they  lamented  his  fate,  were  turned 
into  poplar  trees  on  the  banks  of  the  river ;  and  their  tears,  which 
continued  to  f\o\v,  became  amber  as  they  dropped  into  the  stream. 
The  Italian  Naiads  reared  a  tomb  for  him  and  inscribed  these 
words  upon  the  stone  : 

Driver  of  Phoebus'  chariot,  Phaethon, 

Struck  by  Jove's  thunder,  rests  beneath  this  stone. 

He  could  not  rule  his  father's  car  of  fire, 

Yet  was  it  much  so  nobly  to  aspire.^ 

77.  The  Plague  sent  upon  the  Greeks  before  Troy.  It  was  not, 
however,  only  by  accident,  or  by  the  ill-advised  action  of  those 
whom  he  loved,  that  Apollo's  gifts  of  light  and  heat  were  turned 
into  misfortunes.  Mortals  who  offended  him  were  leveled  by  the 
cruel  sunstroke,  by  arrows  of  malarial  venom,  of  manifold  sickness 
and  death. 

When  the  host  of  the  Achaeans  was  encamped  before  Troy,  the 
king  of  men,  Atrides,  unjustly  declined  to  restore  his  captive, 
Chryseis  of  the  fair  cheeks,  to  her  father  Chryses,  the  priest  of 
far-darting  Apollo.  Then  the  aged  Chryses  went  apart  and  prayed 
aloud,  '"  Hear  me,  god  of  the  silver  bow,  ...  let  the  Danaans  pay 
by  thine  arrows  for  my  tears  ! " 

1  Hk  situs  est  Phaethon,  currus  auriga  patemi, 
Quern  si  non  tenuity  magnis  tamen  excidit  ausis.  —  Ovid, 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN     99 

So  spake  he  in  prayer ;  and  Phoebus  Apollo  heard  him,  and  came  down 
from  the  peaks  of  Olympus  wroth  at  heart,  bearing  on  his  shoulders  his  bow 
and  covered  quiver.  And  the  arrows  clanged  upon  his  shoulders  in  his  wrath, 
as  the  god  moved ;  and  he  descended  like  to  night.  Then  he  sate  him  aloof 
from  the  ships,  and  let  an  arrow  fly ;  and  there  was  heard  a  dread  clanging  of 
the  silver  bow.  First  did  he  assail  the  mules  and  fleet  dogs,  but  afterward, 
aiming  at  the  men  his  piercing  dart,  he  smote ;  and  the  pyres  of  the  dead 
burnt  continually  in  multitude.  Nor  until  Agamemnon  had  sent  back  his 
winsome  captive  to  her  father  did  Apollo  remove  from  the  Danaans  the  loath- 
some pestilence.^ 

78.  The  Punishment  of  Niobe  is  another  illustration  of  the  swift 
and  awful  vengeance  of  Apollo,  and  also  of  his  sister  Diana.  This 
Niobe  was  the  daughter  of  a  certain  Tantalus,  king  of  Phrygia, 
who  had  been  received  at  the  table  of  the  gods  by  his  father 
Jupiter.  But  there  w^as  a  strain  of  ingratitude  and  conceit  in  both 
father  and  daughter.  The  father  not  only  betrayed  the  secrets  of 
the  gods,  but,  to  ridicule  their  reputed  omniscience,  attempted  at 
a  banquet  to  deceive  them  into  eating  the  roasted  flesh  of  his  own 
son  Pelops.  The  gods  were  not  deceived.  Pelops  was  restored 
to  life,  —  Tantalus  consigned  to  Tartarus.  The  daughter  Niobe, 
although  she  owed  her  happy  marriage  with  Jupiter's  son  Amphion, 
and  her  seven  stalwart  sons  and  seven  blooming  daughters,  to  the 
favor  of  the  gods  and  of  Latona  in  particular,  boasted  of  her  birth, 
her  marriage,  and  her  offspring,  bragged  of  her  superiority  to 
Latona,  and,  on  one  occasion,  scoffed  at  the  annual  celebration  in 
honor  of  the  goddess  and  her  two  children.  Surveying  the  people 
of  Thebes  with  haughty  glance,  she  said,  "What  folly  to  prefer 
beings  whom  you  have  never  seen  to  those  who  stand  before  your 
eyes !  Will  you  prefer  to  me  this  Latona,  the  Titan's  daughter, 
with  her  two  children  ?  I  have  seven  times  as  many.  Were  I  to 
lose  some  of  my  children,  I  should  hardly  be  left  as  poor  as  Latona 
with  her  two  only.  Put  off  the  laurel  from  your  brows,  —  have 
done  with  this  w^orship  !  "  The  people  left  the  sacred  services 
uncompleted. 

The  goddess  was  indignant.  On  the  Cynthian  mountain  top 
she  thus  addressed  her  son  and  daughter :  "  My  children,  I  who 
have  been  so    proud   of   you  both  and  have  been  used  to  hold 

1  Iliad,  I,  43-52  (Lang,  Leaf,  and  Myers'  translation). 


lOO 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


myself  second  to  none  of  the  goddesses  except  Juno  alone,  begin 
now  to  doubt  whether  I  am  indeed  a  goddess.  I  shall  be  deprived 
of  my  worship  altogether  unless  you  protect  me."  She  was  pro- 
ceeding in  this  strain,  but  Apollo  interrupted  her.  "  Say  no  more," 
said  he ;  "  speech  only  delays  punishment,"  So  said  Diana  also. 
Darting    through  the  air,  veiled  in  clouds,   they  alighted  on  the 

towers  of  the  city.  Spread  out 
before  the  gates  was  a  broad 
plain  where  the  youth  of  the  city 
pursued  their  warlike  sports. 
The  sons  of  Niobe  were  there 
with  the  rest,  —  some  mounted 
on  spirited  horses  richly  capari- 
soned, some  driving  gay  char- 
iots. Ismenos,  the  first-born, 
as  he  guided  his  foaming  steeds 
was  struck  by  an  arrow  from 
above.  "'  Ah  me  !  "  he  cried, 
—  dropped  the  reins  and  fell 
lifeless.  Another,  hearing  the 
sound  of  the  bow,  gave  the  rein 
to  his  horses  and  attempted  to 
escape.  The  inevitable  arrow 
overtook  him  as  he  fled.  Two 
others,  younger,  stood  wrest- 
ling breast  to  breast :  one  arrow 
pierced  them  both.  Alphenor, 
an  elder  brother,  hastened  to 
the  spot  to  render  assistance,  but  fell  in  the  act  of  brotherly  duty. 
One  only  was  left,  Ilioneus.  "Spare  me,  ye  gods!"  he  cried, 
addressing  all  of  them,  in  his  ignorance  that  all  needed  not  his 
supplication  ;  and  Apollo  would  have  spared  him,  but  the  arrow 
had  already  left  the  string,  and  it  was  too  late. 

When  Niobe  was  acquainted  with  what  had  taken  place,  she 
was  indignant  that  the  gods  had  dared,  and  amazed  that  they  had 
been  able  to  do  it.  Her  husband  Amphion,  overwhelmed  with 
the  blow,  destrovcd  himself.    But  the  mother  knelt  over  the  lifeless 


Fig.  6o.    A  Son  of  Niobe 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    loi 


bodies  and  kissed  them.  Raising 
her  paUid  arms  to  heaven,  "  Cruel 
Latona,"  said  she,  "  satiate  thy  hard 
heart  while  I  follow  to  the  grave 
my  seven  sons.  Yet  where  is  thy 
triumph .?  Bereaved  as  I  am,  I  am 
still  richer  than  thou,  my  conqueror." 
Scarce  had  she  spoken,  when  the 
bow  sounded  and  struck  terror  into 
all  hearts  except  Niobe's  alone.  She 
was  brave  from  excess  of  grief.  Her 
daughters  stood  in  garments  of 
mourning  over  the  biers  of  their 
dead  brothers.  One  after  another 
they  fell,  stmck  by  arrows,  beside 
the  corpses  that  they  were  bewail- 
ing. Only  one  remained,  whom  the 
mother  held  clasped  in  her  arms 
and  covered,  as  it  were,  with  her 
whole  body.  "  Spare  me  one  and 
that  the  youngest !  Oh,  spare  me 
one  of  so  many !  "  she  cried  ;  and 
while  she  spoke,  that  one  fell  dead. 
Desolate  she  sat  among  sons,  daugh- 
ters, husband,  all  dead,  and  seemed 
torpid  with  grief.  The  breeze  moved 
not  her  hair,  no  color  was  on  her 
cheek,  her  eyes  glared  fixed  and 
immovable,  there  was  no  sign  of 
life  about  her.  Her  very  tongue 
cleaved  to  the  roof  of  her  mouth 
and  her  veins  ceased  to  convey  the 
tide  of  life.  Her  neck  bent  not, 
her  arms  made  no  gesture,  her  foot 
no  step.  She  was  changed  to  stone, 
within  and  without.  Yet  tears  con- 
tinued   to   flow ;    and  borne   on   a 


f^_ 


^ 


h'i} 


,<*\'^ 


I02 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


whirlwind  to  her  native  mountain,  she  still  remains,  a  mass  of 
rock  from  which  a  trickling  stream  flows,  the  tribute  of  her  never- 
ending  grief.^ 

Amid  nine  daughters  slain  by  Artemis 

Stood  Niobe ;  she  rais'd  her  head  above 

Those  beauteous  forms  which  had  brought  down  the  scath 

Whence  all  nine  fell,  rais'd  it,  and  stood  erect, 


Fig.  62.   NioBE  and  her  Youngest  Daughter 

And  thus  bespake  the  goddess  enthroned  on  high  : 

"  Thou  heardest,  Artemis,  my  daily  prayer 
That  thou  wouldst  guide  these  children  in  the  pass 
Of  virtue,  through  the  tangling  wilds  of  youth, 
And  thou  didst  ever  guide  them :  was  it  just 
To  smite  them  for  a  beauty  such  as  thine? 
Deserv'd  they  death  because  thy  grace  appear'd 
In  ever  modest  motion  ?  't  was  thy  gift, 

1  Ovid,  Metam.  6,  165-312. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    103 

The  richest  gift  that  youth  from  heaven  receives. 
True,  I  did  boldly  say  they  might  compare 
Even  with  thyself  in  virgin  purity  : 
May  not  a  mother  in  her  pride  repeat 
What  every  mortal  said  ? 

One  prayer  remains 
For  me  to  offer  yet. 
Thy  quiver  holds 

More  than  nine  arrows  :  bend  thy  bow  ;  aim  here  ! 
I  see,  I  see  it  glimmering  through  a  cloud. 
Artemis,  thou  at  length  art  merciful : 
My  children  will  not  hear  the  fatal  twang."  ^ 

79.  The  Lamentation  for  Linus.  How  the  people  of  Argos  fell 
under  the  displeasure  of  Apollo  is  told  in  the  story  of  Linus, 
a  beautiful  son  of  Apollo  and  Psamathe.  In  fear  of  her  father 
the  king,  Psamathe  exposed  the  child  on  the  mountains  where, 
brought  up  by  shepherds  among  the  lambs,  he  was  in  tender  youth 
torn  to  pieces  by  dogs.  Meanwhile,  Psamathe  herself  was  driven 
from  her  father's  home ;  wherefore  Apollo  sent  against  the  land 
of  the  Argives  a  monster  that  for  a  season  destroyed  the  chil- 
dren, but  at  last  was  slain  by  a  noble  youth  named  Corcebus.  To 
appease  the  wrathful  deity,  a  shrine  was  erected  midway  between 
Argos  and  Delphi ;  and  every  year  Linus  and  his  mother  were 
bewailed  in  melancholy  lays  by  the  mothers  and  children  of  Argos, 
especially  by  such  as  had  lost  by  death  their  own  beloved.  The 
fate  of  Linus,  like  that  of  Hyacinthus  and  others  who  succumb 
in  the  springtime  of  life  under  the  excessive  love  of  some  shin- 
ing deity,^  typifies  the  sudden  withering  of  herbs  and  flowers 
and  of  animal  life,  —  the  calves  and  lambs,  young  children  too, 
under  the  fierce  shafts  of  summer.  The  very  name  of  Linus  is 
taken  from  the  refrain  ai-linon,  or  "  woe  is  me,"  of  the  lament 
anciently  sung  by  the  country  people  when  thus  afflicted  by  the 
unhealthy  heats,  because  of  which  the  crops  fail  and  the  dogs  go 
mad  and  tear  the  little  lambs  to  pieces.  In  the  Iliad  there  is  a 
beautiful  picture  which  shows  us  that  the  song  was  not  reserved 
completely  for  the  dog  days.  It  is  of  a  vineyard  teeming  plen- 
teously  with  clusters  : 

1  From  W.  S.  Lander's  Niobe.  '■*  See  Commentary,  §§  64,  80. 


I04 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


And  there  was  a  pathway  through  it  by  which  the  vintagers  might  go.  And 
maidens  and  striplings  in  childish  glee  bare  the  sweet  fruit  in  plaited  baskets. 
And  in  the  midst  of  them  a  boy  made  pleasant  music  on  a  clear-toned  viol,  and 
sang  thereto  a  sweet  Linos-song  with  delicate  voice ;  while  the  rest  with  feet 
falling  together  kept  time  with  the  music  and  song.^ 

80.  .ffisculapius.  The  Thessalian  princess  Coronis  (or  the 
Messenian,    Arsinoe)    bore  to  Apollo   a    child  who  was    named 

^sculapius.  On  his  mother's  death 
the  infant  was  intrusted  to  the  charge 
of  Chiron,  most  famous  of  the  Cen- 
taurs, himself  instructed  by  Apollo  and 
Diana  in  hunting,  medicine,  music,  and 
the  art  of  prophecy.  When  the  sage 
returned  to  his  home  bearing  the  infant, 
his  daughter  Ocyrrhoe  came  forth  to 
meet  him,  and  at  sight  of  the  child 
burst  into  a  prophetic  strain,  foretell- 
ing the  glor}^  that  he  should  achieve. 
/Esculapius,  when  grown  up,  became  a 
renowned  physician  ;  in  one  instance  he 
even  succeeded  in  restoring  the  dead  to 
life.  Pluto  resented  this,  and,  at  his 
request,  Jupiter  struck  the  bold  physi- 
cian with  lightning  and  killed  him,  but 
after  his  death  received  him  into  the 
number  of  the  gods.^ 

81.  Apollo  in  Exile.  Apollo,  indig- 
nant at  the  destruction  of  this  son, 
wreaked  his  vengeance  on  the  innocent  workmen  who  had  made 
the  thunderbolt.  These  were  the  Cyclopes,  who  had  their  work- 
shop under  Mount  yEtna,  from  which  the  smoke  and  flames  of 
their  furnaces  are  constantly  issuing.  Apollo  shot  his  arrows  at 
the  Cyclopes,  a  deed  which  so  incensed  Jupiter  that  he  condemned 
him  to  serve  a  mortal  for  the  space  of  one  year.  Accordingly, 
Apollo  went  into  the  service  of  Admetus,  king  of  Thessaly,  and 
pastured  his  flocks   for  him  on  the  verdant  banks  of  the  river 

1  Iliad,  i8,  564  (Lang,  Leaf,  and  Myers'  translation).        2  Cicero,  Natura  Deorum,  3,  22, 


KiG.  63.     yEsCULAPIUS 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    105 

Amphrysus.     How  the   god    lived    among  men,   and  what   they 
thought  of  him,  is  well  told  in  the  following  verses. 
82.  Lowell's  Shepherd  of  King  Admetus. 

There  came  a  youth  upon  the  earth, 

Some  thousand  years  ago, 
Whose  slender  hands  were  nothing  worth. 
Whether  to  plow,  or  reap,  or  sow. 

Upon  an  empty  tortoise-shell 

He  stretched  some  chords,  and  drew 
Music  that  made  men's  bosoms  swell 
Fearless,  or  brimmed  their  eyes  with  dew. 

Then  King  Admetus,  one  who  had 

Pure  taste  by  right  divine, 
Decreed  his  singing  not  too  bad 
To  hear  between  the  cups  of  wine : 

And  so,  well  pleased  with  being  soothed 

Into  a  Bweet  half-sleep, 
Three  times  his  kingly  beard  he  smoothed, 
And  made  him  viceroy  o'er  his  sheep. 

His  words  were  simple  words  enough. 

And  yet  he  used  them  so. 
That  what  in  other  mouths  was  rough 
In  his  seemed  musical  and  low. 

Men  called  him  but  a  shifUess  youth, 

In  whom  no  good  they  saw ; 
And  yet,  unwittingly,  in  truth. 
They  made  his  careless  words  their  law. 

They  knew  not  how  he  learned  at  all. 

For  idly,  hour  by  hour. 
He  sat  and  watched  the  dead  leaves  fall, 
Or  mused  upon  a  common  flower. 

It  seemed  the  loveliness  of  things 

Did  teach  him  all  their  use, 
For,  in  mere  weeds,  and  stones,  and  springs 
He  found  a  healing  power  profuse. 


« 


io6 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Men  granted  that  his  speech  was  wise, 

But,  when  a  glance  they  caught 
Of  his  slim  grace  and  woman's  eyes, 
They  laughed,  and  called  him  good-for-naught. 

Yet  after  he  was  dead  and  gone 

And  e'en  his  memory  dim. 
Earth  seemed  more  sweet  to  live  upon, 
More  full  of  love,  because  of  him. 

And  day  by  day  more  holy  grew 
Each  spot  where  he  had  trod, 
Till  after-poets  only  knew 
Their  first-born  brother  as  a  god. 

83.  Admetus  and  Alcestis.^   Admetus  was  a  suitor,  with  others, 
for  the  hand  of  Alcestis,  the  daughter  of  PeHas,  who  promised  her 

to    him   who    should  come 


for  her  in  a  chariot  drawn 
by  Hons  and  boars.  This 
task  Admetus  performed  by 
the  assistance  of  his  divine 
herdsman,  and  was  made 
happy  in  the  ppssession  of 
Alcestis.  But  Admetus  fall- 
ing ill  and  being  near  to 
death,  Apollo  prevailed  on 
the  Fates  to  spare  him  on 
condition  that  some  one 
should  consent  to  die  in  his 
stead.  Admetus,  in  his  joy  at 
this  reprieve,  thought  little 
of  the  ransom,  and,  perhaps 

remembering    the    declara- 
FiG.  64.   Admetus  must  Die  . .  r      i.^.     i  ^       1  •  1 

tions  01   attachment  which 

he  had  often  heard  from  his  courtiers  and  dependents,  fancied  that 

it  would  be  easy  to  find  a  substitute.    But  it  was  not  so.    Brave 

warriors,  who  would  willingly  have  periled  their  lives  for  their 

1  See  Commentary. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    107 

prince,  shrunk  from  the  thought  of  dying  for  him  on  the  bed  of 
sickness ;  and  old  servants  who  had  experienced  his  bounty  and 
that  of  his  house  from  their  childhood  up  were  not  willing  to  lay 
down  the  scanty  remnant  of  their  days  to  show  their  gratitude. 
Men  asked,  "  Why  does  not  one  of  his  parents  do  it  ?  They  can- 
not in  the  course  of  nature  live  much  longer,  and  who  can  feel  like 
them  the  call  to  rescue  the  life  they  gave  from  an  untimely  end  ?" 
But  the  parents,  distressed  though  they  were  at  the  thought  of 
losing  him,  shrunk  from  the  call.  Then  Alcestis,  with  a  generous 
self-devotion,  proffered  herself  as  the  substitute.  Admetus,  fond 
as  he  was  of  life,  would  not  have  submitted  to  receive  it  at  such 
a  cost  ;  but  there  was  no  remedy.  The  condition  imposed  by  the 
Fates  had  been  met,  and  the  decree  was  irrevocable.  As  Admetus 
revived,  Alcestis  sickened,  rapidly  sank,  and  died. 

Just  after  the  funeral  procession  had  left  the  palace,  Hercules, 
the  son  of  Jupiter  and  Alcmena,  arrived.  He,  to  whom  no  labor 
was  too  arduous,  resolved  to  attempt  her  rescue.    Said  he  : 

"  I  will  go  lie  in  wait  for  Death,  black-stoled 

King  of  the  corpses  !  ^    I  shall  hnd  him,  sure, 

Drinking,  beside  the  tomb,  o'  the  sacrifice : 

And  if  I  lie  in  ambuscade,  and  leap 

Out  of  my  lair,  and  seize  —  encircle  him 

Till  one  hand  join  the  other  round  about  — 

There,  lives  not  who  shall  pull  him  out  from  me, 

Rib-mauled,  before  he  let  the  woman  go  ! 

But  even  say  I  miss  the  booty,  —  say, 

Death  comes  not  to  the  boltered  blood,  —  why,  then, 

Down  go  I,  to  the  unsunned  dwelling-place 

Of  Kor6  2  and  the  king  there,  —  make  demand, 

Confident  I  shall  bring  Alkestis  back, 

So  as  to  put  her  in  the  hands  of  him 

My  host,  that  housed  me,  never  drove  me  off : 

Though  stricken  with  sore  sorrow  hid  the  stroke. 

Being  a  noble  heart  and  honoring  me ! 

Who  of  Thessalians,  more  than  this  man,  loves 

The  stranger  ?    Who  that  now  inhabits  Greece  ? 

Wherefore  he  shall  not  say  the  man  was  vile 

1  From  Browning's  Balaustion's  Adventure.   The  Greek  form  of  the  proper  names  has 
been  retained.  2  Proserpine. 


io8 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Fig.  65.    Heracles 


Whom  he  befriended,  —  native  noble  heart !  " 

So,  one  look  upward,  as  if  Zeus  might  laugh 

Approval  of  his  human  progeny,  — 

One  summons  of  the  whole  magnific  frame, 

Each  sinew  to  its  service,  —  up  he  caught, 

And  over  shoulder  cast  the  lion-shag, 

Let  the  club  go,  —  for  had  he  not  those  hands  ? 

And  so  went  striding  off,  on  that  straight  way 

Leads  to  Larissa  and  the  suburb  tomb. 

Gladness  be  with  thee,  Helper  of  our  world  ! 

I  think  this  is  the  authentic  sign  and  seal 

Of  Godship  that  it  ever  waxes  glad, 

And  more  glad,  until  gladness  blossoms,  bursts 

Into  a  rage  to  suffer  for  mankind. 

And  recommence  at  sorrow :  drops  like  seed 

After  the  blossom,  ultimate  of  all. 

Say,  does  the  seed  scorn  earth  and  seek  the  sun  ? 

Surely  it  has  no  other  end  and  aim 

Than  to  drop,  once  more  die  into  the  ground. 

Taste  cold  and  darkness  and  oblivion  there : 

And  thence  rise,  tree-like  grow  through  pain  to  joy, 

More  joy  and  most  joy,  —  do  man  good  again. 

So  to  the  struggle  off  strode  Herakles. 


Long  time  the  Thessalians  waited  and  mourned.    As  for  Hera- 
kles, no  doubt  they  supposed  him  dead.    When  —  but  can  it  be  .'' 

.  .  .  Ay,  he  it  was  advancing!    In  he  strode. 

And  took  his  stand  before  Admetos,  —  turned 

Now  by  despair  to  such  a  quietude. 

He  neither  raised  his  face  nor  spoke,  this  time. 

The  while  his  friend  surveyed  him  steadily. 

That  friend  looked  rough  with  fighting :  had  he  strained 

Worst  brute  to  breast  was  ever  strangled  yet .'' 

Somehow,  a  victory  —  for  there  stood  the  strength, 

Happy,  as  always  ;  something  grave,  perhaps  ; 

The  great  vein-cordage  on  the  fret-worked  front, 

Black-swollen,  beaded  yet  with  battle-dew 

The  golden  hair  o'  the  hero  !  —  his  big  frame 

A-quiver  with  each  muscle  sinking  back 

Into  the  sleepy  smooth  it  leaped  from  late. 

Under  the  great  guard  of  one  arm,  there  leant 

A  shrouded  something,  live  and  woman-like, 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    109 

Propped  by  the  heartbeats  'neath  the  lion-coat. 
When  he  had  finished  his  survey,  it  seemed, 
The  heavings  of  the  heart  began  subside, 
The  helpful  breath  returned,  and  last  the  smile 
Shone  out,  all  Herakles  was  back  again. 
As  the  words  followed  the  saluting  hand. 

"  Admetus,"  said  he,  "take  and  keep  this  woman,  my  captive,  till 
1  come  thy  way  again."  But  Admetus  would  admit  no  woman  into 
the  hall  that  Alcestis  had  left  empty.  Then  cried  Herakles, "Take 
hold  of  her.  See  now,  my  friend,  if  she  look  not  somewhat  like 
that  wife  thou  hast  lost." 

Ah,  but  the  tears  come,  find  the  words  at  fault ! 

There  is  no  telling  how  the  hero  twitched 

The  veil  off ;  and  there  stood,  with  such  fixed  eyes 

And  such  slow  smile,  Alkestis'  silent  self ! 

It  was  the  crowning  grace  of  that  great  heart. 

To  keep  back  joy :  procrastinate  the  truth 

Until  the  wife,  who  had  made  proof  and  found 

The  husband  wanting,  might  essay  once  more. 

Hear,  see,  and  feel  him  renovated  now  — 

Able  to  do  now  all  herself  had  done. 

Risen  to  the  height  of  her :  so,  hand  in  hand. 

The  two  might  go  together,  live  and  die. 

Beside,  when  he  found  speech,  you  guess  the  speech. 

He  could  not  think  he  saw  his  wife  again : 

It  was  some  mocking  God  that  used  the  bliss 

To  make  him  mad !    Till  Herakles  must  help  : 

Assure  him  that  no  specter  mocked  at  all ; 

He  was  embracing  whom  he  buried  once, 

Still,  —  did  he  touch,  might  he  address  the  true, 

True  eye,  true  body  of  the  true  live  wife  ? 

.  .  .  And  Herakles  said  little,  but  enough  — 

How  he  engaged  in  combat  with  that  king 

O'  the  daemons :  how  the  field  of  contest  lay 

By  the  tomb's  self :  how  he  sprang  from  ambuscade. 

Captured  Death,  caught  him  in  that  pair  of  hands. 

But  all  the  time,  Alkestis  moved  not  once 

Out  of  the  set  gaze  and  the  silent  smile ; 

And  a  cold  fear  ran  through  Admetos'  frame : 

"  Why  does  she  stand  and  front  me,  silent  thus .''  " 


I  lO 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


/ 


Herakles  solemnly  replied,  "  Not  yet 

Is  it  allowable  thou  hear  the  things 

She  has  to  tell  thee ;  let  evanish  quite 

That  consecration  to  the  lower  Gods, 

And  on  our  upper  world  the  third  day  rise ! 

Lead  her  in,  meanwhile ;  good  and  true  thou  art, 

Good,  true,  remain  thou !    Practice  piety 

To  stranger-guests  the  old  way  !    So,  farewell ! 

Since  forth  I  fare,  fulfill  my  urgent  task 

Set  by  the  king,  the  son  of  Sthenelos."  ^ 

84.  Apollo,  the  Musician.    Not  only  in  Arcadia,  Laconia,  and 
Thessaly  did  Apollo  care  as  a  herdsman  for  the  cattle  of  a  mortal 

master;  in  Mount  Ida,  too,  by  the 
order  of  Jupiter  he  herded  for  a  year 
the  "shambling,  crook-horned  kine  "  of 
King  Laomedon,  and,  playing  on  the 
lyre,  aided  Neptune  to  build  the  walls 
\  of  Troy,  just  as  Amphion,  in  his  turn, 
I  had  aided  in  the  building  of  Thebes. 
Apollo's  life  as  herdsman  was  spent  in 
establishing  wise  laws  and  customs,  in 
musical  contests  on  the  flute  and  the 
lyre,  or  in  passages  of  love  with  nymphs 
and  maidens  of  mortal  mold. 

85.  Apollo,  Pan,  and  Midas.^  It  is 
said  that  on  a  certain  occasion  Pan  had 
the  temerity  to  compare  his  music  with 
that  of  Apollo  and  to  challenge  the  god 
of  the  lyre  to  a  trial  of  skill.  The  chal- 
lenge was  accepted,  and  Tmolus,  the 
mountain-god,  was  chosen  umpire.  The 
senior  took  his  seat  and  cleared  away 
the  trees  from  his  ears  to  listen.  At  a 
given  signal  Pan  blew  on  his  pipes,  and  with  his  rustic  melody 
gave  great  satisfaction  to  himself  and  his  faithful  follower  Midas, 
who  happened  to  be  present.    Then  Tmolus  turned  his  head  toward 

1  For  the  originals,  see  Iliad,  2,  715,  and  the  Alcestis  of  Euripides. 

2  Ovid,  Metam.  11,  146-193. 


Fig.  66.    The  Palatine 
Apollo 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    i  1 1 

the  sun-god,  and  all  his  trees  turned  with  him.  Apollo  rose,  his  brow 
wreathed  with  Parnassian  laurel,  while  his  robe  of  Tyrian  purple 
swept  the  ground.  In  his  left  hand  he  held  the  lyre  and  with  his 
right  hand  struck  the  strings.  Tmolus  at  once  awarded  the  victory 
to  the  lyric  god,  and  all  but  Midas  acquiesced  in  the  judgment.  He 
dissented  and  questioned  the  justice  of  the  award.  Apollo  promptly 
transformed  his  depraved  pair  of  ears  into  those  of  an  ass. 

King  Midas  tried  to  hide  his  misfortune  under  an  ample  turban. 
But  his  hair-dresser  found  it  too  much  for  his  discretion  to  keep 
such  a  secret ;  he  dug  a  hole  in  the  ground  and,  stooping  down, 
whispered  the  story,  and  covered  it  up.  But  a  thick  bed  of  reeds 
springing  up  in  the  meadow  began  whispering  the  stor\',  and  has 
continued  to  do  so  from  that  day  to  this,  every  time  a  breeze 
passes  over  the  place. 

86.  Shelley's  Hymn  of  Pan.  In  the  following  verses  Pan  taunts 
Apollo  as  he  might  have  done  when  Midas  was  sitting  contentedly  by  : 

From  the  forests  and  highlands 

We  come,  we  come ; 
From  the  river-girt  islands, 

Where  loud  waves  are  dumb. 
Listening  to  my  sweet  pipings. 
The  wind  in  the  reeds  and  the  rushes, 

The  bees  on  the  bells  of  thyme, 
The  birds  on  the  myrtle  bushes, 
The  cicale  above  in  the  lime, 
•   And  the  lizards  below  in  the  grass, 
Were  as  silent  as  ever  old  Tmolus  was 
Listening  to  my  sweet  pipings. 

Liquid  Peneiis  was  flowing, 

And  all  dark  Tempe  lay, 
In  Pelion's  shadow,  outgrowing 
The  light  of  the  dying  day, 
Speeded  by  my  sweet  pipings. 
The  Sileni,  and  Sylvans,  and  Fauns, 

And  the  Nymphs  of  the  woods  and  waves, 
To  the  edge  of  the  moist  river-lawns, 

And  the  brink  of  the  dewy  caves, 
And  all  that  did  then  attend  and  follow 
Were  silent  with  love,  as  you  now,  Apollo, 
With  envy  of  my  sweet  pipings. 


1 1 2  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

I  sang  of  the  dancing  stars, 

I  sang  of  the  daedal  Earth, 
And  of  Heaven  —  and  the  giant  wars. 
And  Love,  and  Death,  and  Birth,  — 
And  then  I  changed  my  pipings,  — 
Singing  how  down  the  vale  of  Menalus 

I  pursued  a  jnaiden,  and  clasp'd  a  reed : 
Gods  and  men,  we  are  all  deluded  thus ! 

It  breaks  in  our  bosom  and  then  we  bleed : 
All  wept,  as  I  think  both  ye  now  would. 
If  envy  or  age  had  not  frozen  your  blood, 
At  the  sorrow  of  my  sweet  pipings. 

87.  Marsyas  also  was  unfortunate  enough  to  underrate  Apollo's 
musical  ability.  It  seems  that  the  flute,  an  invention  of  Minerva's, 
had  been  thrown  away  by  that  goddess  because  Cupid  laughed  at 
the  grimaces  which  she  made  while  playing  it.  Marsyas  found  the 
instrument,  blew  upon  it,  and  elicited  such  ravishing  sounds  that 
he  was  tempted  to  challenge  Apollo  himself  to  a  musical  contest. 
The  god,  of  course,  triumphed,  and  he  punished  Marsyas  by  flaying 
him  alive. 

88.  The  Loves  of  Apollo.  Beside  Psamathe  of  Argos,  Coronis 
of  Thessaly,  and  the  nymph  Clymene,  who  have  been  already  men- 
tioned, Apollo  loved  the  muse  Calliope,  who  bore  him  Orpheus,^ 
and  the  nymph  Cyrene,  whose  son  was  Aristaeus,^  Of  his  rela- 
tions with  other  maidens  the  following  myths  exist. 

89.  Daphne.'^  The  lord  of  the  silver  bow  was  n6t  always  pros- 
perous in  his  wooing.  His  first  love,  which,  by  the  way,  owed  its 
origin  to  the  malice  of  Cupid,  was  specially  unfortunate.  It 
appears  that  Apollo,  seeing  the  boy  playing  with  his  bow  and 
arrows,  had  tauntingly  advised  him  to  leave  warlike  weapons  for 
hands  worthy  of  them  and  content  himself  with  the  torch  of  love. 
Whereupon  the  son  of  Venus  had  rejoined,  "  Thine  arrows  may 
strike  all  things  else,  Apollo,  but  mine  shall  strike  thee." 

So  saying,  he  took  his  stand  on  a  rock  of  Parnassus,  and  drew 
from  his  quiver  two  arrows  of  different  workmanship,  —  one  to 
excite  love,  the  other  to  repel  it.  The  former  was  of  gold  and 
sharp  pointed,  the  latter  blunt  and  tipped  with  lead.    With  the 

^  §  ii8.  a  §  145.  8  Ovid,  Metam.  i,  452-567. 


— '^N    ilL>  I 


V 


X 


s-'^    <\\ 


^ 


APOLLO   AND   DAPHNE 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN 


113 


leaden  shaft  he  struck  the  nymph  Daphne,  the  daughter  of  the  river- 
god  Peneiis,  and  with  the  golden  one  Apollo,  through  the  heart. 
Forthwith  the  god  was  seized  with  love  for  the  maiden,  but  she, 
more  than  ever,  abhorred  the  thought  of  loving.  Her  delight  was 
in  woodland  sports  and  in  the  spoils  of  the  chase.  Spurning  all 
lovers,  she  prayed  her  father  that  she  might  remain  always  unmar- 
ried, like  Diana,  He  consented,  but,  at  the  same  time,  warned 
her  that  her  beauty  would  defeat  her  purpose.  It  was  the  face  of 
this  huntress  maiden  that  Apollo  saw.  He  saw 
the  charming  disorder  of  her  hair,  and  would 
have  arranged  it ;  he  saw  her  eyes  bright  as 
stars ;  he  saw  her  lips,  and  was  not  satisfied 
with  only  seeing  them.  He  longed  for  Daphne. 
He  followed  her ;  she  fled  swifter  than  the 
wind,  nor  delayed  a  moment  at  his  entreaties. 
"  Stay,"  said  he,  "  daughter  of  Peneiis  ;  I  am 
not  a  foe.  It  is  for  love  I  pursue  thee.  I  am  no 
clown,  no  rude  peasant.  Jupiter  is  my  father, 
I  am  lord  of  Delphi  and  Tenedos.  I  know  all 
things,  present  and  future,  I  am  the  god  of 
song  and  the  lyre.  My  arrows  fly  true  to  the 
mark  ;  but  alas  !  an  arrow  more  fatal  than  mine 
has  pierced  my  heart !  I  am  the  god  of  medi- 
cine and  know  the  virtues  of  all  healing  plants. 
Alas  !  I  suffer  a  malady  that  no  balm  can  cure." 
The  nymph  continues  her  flight  and  leaves 
his  plea  half-uttered.  But  even  as  she  flies  she 
charms  him.  The  wind  catches  her  garments, 
and  her  unbound  hair  streams  loose  behind  her. 
Cupid,  gains  upon  her  in  the  race.  His  panting  breath  blows  upon 
her  hair.  Her  strength  begins  to  fail,  and,  ready  to  sink,  she  calls 
upon  her  father,  the  river-god  :  '"  Help  me,  Peneiis  !  open  the  earth 
to  inclose  me,  or  change  my  form,  which  has  brought  me  into 
this  danger !  "  Scarcely  had  she  spoken  when  a  stiffness  seized 
her  limbs  ;  and  little  by  little  she  took  on  the  appearance  of  a 
laurel  tree.  Apollo  embraced  the  branches  and  lavished  kisses  on 
the  wood.    The  branches  shrank  from  his  lips.    "  Since  thou  canst 


P'lG.  67.    Daphne 
The  god,  sped  by 


114  1'^^  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

not  be  my  wife,"  said  he,  "  thou  shalt  assuredly  be  my  tree.  I  will 
wear  thee  for  my  crown,  I  will  decorate  with  thee  my  harp  and  my 
quiver.  When  the  Roman  conquerors  conduct  the  triumphal  pomp 
to  the  Capitol,  thou  shalt  be  woven  into  wreaths  for  their  brows. 
And,  as  eternal  youth  is  mine,  thou  also  shalt  be  always  green,  and 
thy  leaf  know  no  decay."  The  laurel  tree  bowed  its  head  in  grateful 
acknowledgment. 

The  delicious  humor  of  Lowell's  extravaganza  upon  the  story 
amply  justifies  the  following  citation  : 

Phoebus,  sluing  one  day  in  a  laurel  tree's  shade. 

Was  reminded  of  Daphne,  of  whom  it  was  made. 

For  the  god  being  one  day  too  warm  in  his  wooing, 

She  took  to  the  tree  to  escape  his  pursuing ; 

Be  the  cause  what  it  might,  from  his  offers  she  shrunk, 

And,  Ginevra-like,  shut  herself  up  in  a  trunk  ; 

And,  though  't  was  a  step  into  which  he  had  driven  her, 

He  somehow  or  other  had  never  forgiven  her ; 

Her  memory  he  nursed  as  a  kind  of  a  tonic, 

Something  bitter  to  chew  when  he  'd  play  the  Byronic, 

And  I  can't  count  the  obstinate  nymphs  that  he  brought  over 

By  a  strange  kind  of  smile  he  put  on  when  he  thought  of  her. 

"  My  case  is  like  Dido's,"  he  sometimes  remarked ; 

"  When  I  last  saw  my  love,  she  was  fairly  embarked 

In  a  laurel,  as  she  thought — -but  (ah,  how  Fate  mocks  !) 

She  has  found  it  by  this  time  a  very  bad  box ; 

Let  hunters  from  me  take  this  saw  when  they  need  it,  — 

You  're  not  always  sure  of  your  game  when  you  've  treed  it. 

Just  conceive  such  a  change  taking  place  in  one's  mistress  ! 

What  romance  would  be  left  ?  —  who  can  flatter  or  kiss  trees  ? 

And,  for  mercy's  sake,  how  could  one  keep  up  a  dialogue 

With  a  dull  wooden  thing  that  will  live  and  will  die  a  log,  — 

Not  to  say  that  the  thought  would  forever  intrude 

That  you  've  less  chance  to  win  her  the  more  she  is  wood  1 

Ah !  it  went  to  my  heart,  and  the  memory  still  grieves, 

To  see  those  loved  graces  all  taking  their  leaves ; 

Those  charms  beyond  speech,  so  enchanting  but  now. 

As  they  left  me  forever,  each  making  its  bough ! 

If  her  tongue  had  a  tang  sometimes  more  than  was  right, 

Her  new  bark  is  worse  than  ten  times  her  old  bite."  ^ 

1  From  the  Fable  for  Critics. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    1 1 5 

90.  Marpessa.  Another  maiden  who  dechned  Apollo's  love  was 
Marpessa.i  She  is  called  by  Homer  "the  fair-ankled  daughter  of 
Evenus." 

The  god  Apollo  from  the  heaven  of  heavens 
Her  mortal  sweetness  through  the  air  allured ;  ^ 

but  Idas,  "  that  was  strongest  of  men  that  were  then  on  earth,"  ^ 
carried  her  off,  assisted  by  Poseidon  who  gave  him  a  winged  chariot. 
Her  father  Evenus  vainly  tried  to  catch  up  with  the  fleeing 
lovers ;  but  Apollo  found  them  in  Messene,  and  wrested  the  maiden 
away.  Then  Jupiter,  while  the  lovers  were  engaged  in  combat, 
separated  them,  saying,  "  Let  her  decide." 

They  three  together  met ;  on  the  one  side, 

Fresh  from  diffusing  light  on  all  the  world 

Apollo ;  on  the  other  without  sleep 

Idas,  and  in  the  midst  Marpessa  stood. 

Just  as  a  flower  after  drenching  rain, 

So  from  the  falling  of  felicity 

Her  human  beauty  glowed,  and  it  was  new^ ; 

The  bee  too  near  her  bosom  drowsed  and  dropped." 

According  to  the  story  as  romantically  told  by  the  English  poet 
Phillips,  first  spoke  Apollo.  The  god  told  her  that  he  dreaded 
that  one  so  fair  should  ever  taste  of  sorrow  and  death  ;  how,  if  she 
lived  with  him,  she  should  bide 

In  mere  felicity  above  the  world 

In  peace  alive  and  moving,  where  to  stir 

Is  ecstasy,  and  thrilling  is  repose,- 

immortal,  scattering  joy  without  intermission,  lighting  the  world, 
bringing  bliss  to  struggling  men  and  sorrowing  women,  dispelling 
shadows  and  shado\\y  fear. 
Then  Idas,  humbly,  — 

"  After  such  argument  what  can  I  plead  .'' 
Or  what  pale  promise  make  ?    Yet  since  it  is 
In  women  to  pity  rather  than  to  aspire, 
A  little  will  I  speak." 

1  Iliad,  9,  561  ;  Apollodorus,  i,  7,  §  8.  2  Stephen  Phillips,  Marpessa. 


Il6  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

And  he  tells  her  simply  that  he  loves  her,  —  loves  her  not  only  for 
her  beauty,  but 

"  Because  Infinity  upon  thee  broods ; 
And  thou  art  full  of  whispers  and  of  shadows ;  —  " 

and  because  her  voice  is  music,  her  face  mystery  beyond  his  power 
to  comprehend ; 

"  O  beauty  lone  and  like  a  candle  clear 
In  this  dark  country  of  the  world!  Thou  art 
My  woe,  my  early  light,  my  music  dying." 

And  Marpessa  ?  — 

As  he  was  speaking,  she  with  lips  apart 

Breathed,  and  with  dimmer  eyes  leaned  through  the  ar 

As  one  in  dream,  and  now  his  human  hand 

Took  in  her  own  ;  and  to  Apollo  spoke,  — 

saying  that  she  knew  how  sweet  it  might  be  forever  with  a  god 
to  aid  suffering  men  and  women  and  "  gild  the  face  that  from  its 
dead  looks  up";  but  still  she  feared  immortality,  for,  though  dying 
not,  she  must  grow  old,  and  her  god  lover  would  tire  of  her  when 
once  her  youth  was  faded.  And  as  for  that  "  existence  without 
tears  for  evermore  "  which  he  promised,  — • 

"  Yet  I  being  human,  human  sorrow  miss. 
The  half  of  music,  I  have  heard  men  say, 
Is  to  have  grieved." 

To  sorrow  she  was  born.  It  is  out  of  sadness  that  men  have  made 
this  world  beautiful.  If  she  chooses  Idas,  then  they  two  will  pros- 
per together,  grow  old  together,  and  last  descend  into  the  "  natural 
ground,"  and  "  leave  behind  a  wholesome  memory  on  the  earth." 

When  she  had  spoken,  Idas  with  one  cry 
Held  her,  and  there  was  silence ;  while  the  god 
In  anger  disappeared.    Then  slowly  they. 
He  looking  downward,  and  she  gazing  up, 
Into  the  evening  green  wandered  away. 

91.  Clytie,^    In  the  story  of  Chtie  the  conditions  are  reversed. 
She  was  a  water-nymph  and  in  love  with  Apollo,  who  made  her 

1  Ovid,  Metam.  4,  256-270. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    117 

no  return.  So  she  pined  away,  sitting  all  day  long  upon  the  cold 
ground  with  her  unbound  tresses  streaming  over  her  shoulders. 
Nine  days  she  sat,  and  tasted  neither  food  nor  drink,  —  her  own 
tears  and  the  chilly  dew  her  only  sustenance.  She  gazed  on  the  sun 
when  he  rose  ;  and  as  he  passed  through  his  daily  course  to  his  set- 
ting, she  saw  no  other  object,  —  her  eyes  fixed  constantly  on  him. 
At  last,  they  say,  her  limbs  took  root  in  the  ground  and  her  face 
became  a  flower,  turning  on  its  stem  to  follow  the  journeying  sun. 

In  the  following  lines,  Thomas  Moore 
uses  the  flower  as  an  emblem  of  constancy  : 

The  heart  that  has  truly  loved  never  forgets, 

But  as  truly  loves  on  to  the  close ; 
As  the  sunflower  turns  on  her  god  when  he  sets 

The  same  look  that  she  turned  when  he  rose. 


92.  Myths  of  Diana.  In  company  with  her 
radiant  brother,  we  find  Diana  subduing  Tityus 
and  the  Python  and  assisting  in  the  punish- 
ment of  Niobe.  The  speedy  transformation  of 
Daphne  has  been  attributed  to  this  goddess,  the 
champion  of  maidenhood.  According  to  some, 
it  was  she,  too,  that  changed  Callisto  into  a  bear, 
when  for  love  of  Jupiter  that  nymph  deserted 
the  huntress-band.  Numerous  are  the  myths 
that  celebrate  the  severity  of  the  goddess  of  the 
unerring  bow  toward  those  who  offended  her. 
How  she  served  Agamemnon  for  slaying  one 
of  her  hinds  is  told  in  the  story  of  Troy ;  ^  how 
she  punished  CEneus  for  omitting  a  sacrifice  to 

her  is  narrated  in  the  episode  of  the  Calydonian  hunt.^  Similar 
attributes  of  the  goddess  are  exemplified  in  the  myths  of  Arethusa, 
Actseon,  and  Orion.  It  is  only  when  she  is  identified  with  Selene, 
the  peaceful  moonlight,  that  we  perceive  a  softer  side  of  character, 
such  as  that  displayed  in  her  relations  with  Endymion. 

93.  The  Flight  of  Arethusa.^   A  woodland  nymph  of  Elis  was 
this  Arethusa ;  she  delighted  not  in  her  comeliness,  but  in  the 


Fig.  68.   Artemis 


4196. 


4  16X. 


8  Ovid,  Metam.  5,  585-641 


Il8  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

joys  of  the  chase.  One  day,  returning  from  the  wood  heated  with 
exercise,  she  descended  to  a  stream  silently  flowing,  so  clear  that 
you  might  count  the  pebbles  on  the  bottom.  She  laid  aside  her 
garments ;  but  while  she  sported  in  the  water,  she  heard  an  indis- 
tinct murmur  rising  as  out  of  the  depths  of  the  stream.  She  made 
haste  to  reach  the  nearest  bank.  A  voice  followed  her,  "Why 
flyest  thou,  Arethusa .?  Alpheiis  am  I,  the  god  of  this  stream." 
The  nymph  ran,  the  god  pursued.  Arethusa, 
at  last  exhausted,  cried  for  help  to  Diana,  who, 
hearing,  wrapped  her  votary  in  a  thick  cloud. 
Perplexed,  the  river-god  still  sought  the  trem- 
bling maiden.  But  a  cold  sweat  came  over  her. 
In  less  time  than  it  takes  to  tell,  she  had  become 
a  fountain.    Alpheiis  attempted  then  to  mingle 

,.      .      .  his  stream  with  hers.    But  the  Cynthian  queen 

tiG.  69.    Arethusa  -^  ^ 

cleft  the  ground,  and  Arethusa,  still  endeav- 
oring to  escape,  plunged  into  the  abyss  and,  passing  through  the 
bowels  of  the  earth,  came  out  in  Sicily,  still  followed  by  the  pas- 
sionate river-god. 

94.  Shelley's  Arethusa.    In  the  following  version  of  the  pur- 
suit, Arethusa  was  already  a  river  when  Alpheiis  espied  her. 

Arethusa  arose 

From  her  couch  of  snows 
In  the  Acroceraunian  mountains,  — 

From  cloud  and  from  crag, 

With  many  a  jag, 
Shepherding  her  bright  fountains, 

She  leapt  down  the  rocks, 

With  her  rainbow  locks 
Streaming  among  the  streams ;  — 

Her  steps  paved  with  green 

The  downward  ravine 
Which  slopes  to  the  western  gleams : 

And  gliding  and  springing 

She  went,  ever  singing, 
In  murmurs  as  soft  as  sleep ; 

The  Earth  seemed  to  love  her, 

And  Heaven  smiled  above  her, 
As  she  lingered  towards  the  deep. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    119 


Then  Alpheiis  bold 
On  his  glacier  cold, 
With  his  trident  the  mountain  strook 
And  opened  a  chasm 
In  the  rocks  ;  —  with  the  spasm 
All  Erymanthus  shook. 

And  the  black  south  wind 
It  concealed  behind 
The  urns  of  the  silent  snow, 

And  earthquake  and  thunder 
Did  rend  in  sunder 
The  bars  of  the  springs  below ; 
The  beard  and  the  hair 
Of  the  River-god  were 
Seen  through  the  torrent's  sweep, 
As  he  followed  the  light 
Ot  the  fleet  nymph's  flight 
To  the  brink  of  the  Dorian  deep. 


"  Oh,  save  me !    Oh,  guide  me  ! 
And  bid  the  deep  hide  me. 
For  he  grasps  me  now  by  the  hair !  " 
The  loud  Ocean  heard, 
To  its  blue  depth  stirred. 
And  divided  at  her  prayer ; 

And  under  the  water 
The  Earth's  white  daughter 
Fled  like  a  sunny  beam ; 

Behind  her  descended 
Her  billows  unblended 
With  the  brackish  Dorian  stream :  — 
Like  a  gloomy  stain 
On  the  emerald  main, 
Alpheiis  rushed  behind,  — 
As  an  eagle  pursuing 
A  dove  to  its  ruin 
Down  the  streams  of  the  cloudy  wind 

Under  the  bowers 
Where  the  Ocean  Powers 
Sit  on  their  pearled  thrones, 

Through  the  coral  woods 
Of  the  weltering  floods, 


Fig.  70.    A  Young 
River-god 


I20  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Over  heaps  of  unvalued  stones ; 

Through  the  dim  beams 

Which  amid  the  streams 
Weave  a  network  of  colored  light ; 

And  under  the  caves, 

Where  the  shadowy  waves 
Are  as  green  as  the  forest's  night : 

Outspeeding  the  shark, 

And  the  swordfish  dark. 
Under  the  ocean  foam. 

And  up  through  the  rifts 

Of  the  mountain  clifts 
They  past  to  their  Dorian  home. 

And  now  from  their  fountains 

In  Enna's  mountains, 
Down  one  vale  where  the  morning  basks 

Like  friends  once  parted 

Grown  single-hearted. 
They  ply  their  watery  tasks. 

At  sunrise  they  leap 

From  their  cradles  steep 
In  the  cave  of  the  shelving  hill ; 

At  noontide  they  flow 

Through  the  woods  below 
And  the  meadows  of  Asphodel : 

And  at  night  they  sleep 

In  the  rocking  deep 
Beneath  the  Ortygian  shore ;  — 

Like  spirits  that  lie 

In  the  azure  sky 
When  they  love  but  live  no  more. 

95.  The  Fate  of  Actaeon.^  Diana's  severity  toward  young  Ac- 
tason,  grandson  of  Cadmus  whose  kindred  fell  under  the  curse  of 
Mars,  is  thus  narrated. 

One  day,  having  repaired  to  a  valley  inclosed  by  cypresses  and 
pines,  where  gushed  a  fountain  of  sparkling  water,  the  chaste  Diana 
handed  her  javelin,  her  quiver,  and  her  bow  to  one  nymph,  her 
robe  to  another,  while  a  third  unbound  the  sandals  from  her  feet. 
Then  Crocale,  the  most  skillful  of  them,  arranged  her  hair,  and 

1  Ovid,  Metam.  3,  138-252. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    121 

Nephele,  Hyale,  and  the  rest  drew  water  in  capacious  urns.  While 
the  huntress  queen  was  thus  employed  in  the  labors  of  the  toilet, 
Actaeon,  the  son  of  Autonoe  and  Aristaeus,  having  quitted  his  com- 
panions of  the  chase  and  rambling  without  any  especial  object,  came 
to  the  place,  led  thither  by  his  destiny.  As  he  presented  himself  at 
the  entrance  of  the  cave,  the  nymphs,  seeing  a  man,  screamed  and 
rushed  towards  the  goddess  to  hide  her  with  their  bodies.  But  she 
was  taller  than  the  rest  and  overtopped  them  all  by  a  head.  Such 
a  color  as  tinges  the  clouds  at  sunset  or  at  dawn  came  over  the 


Fig.  71.   AcT/EON 


countenance  of  Diana,  thus  taken  by  surprise.  vSurrounded  as  she 
was  by  her  nymphs,  she  yet  turned  half  away  and  sought  with  a 
sudden  impulse  for  her  arrows.  As  they  were  not  at  hand,  she 
dashed  the  water  into  the  face  of  the  intmder,  saying,  "  Now  go 
and  tell,  if  you  can,  that  you  have  seen  Diana  unappareled."  Im- 
mediately a  pair  of  branching  stag's  horns  grew  out  of  the  hunts- 
man's head,  his  neck  gained  in  length,  his  ears  grew  sharp-pointed, 
his  hands  became  feet,  his  arms,  his  long  legs,  and  his  body  were 
covered  with  a  hairy  spotted  hide.  Fear  took  the  place  of  his 
former  boldness,  and  the  hero  fled.  What  should  he  do }  —  go 
home  to  the  palace  or  lie  hid  in  the  woods  .?    While  he  hesitated 


122  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

his  dogs  saw  him.  Over  rocks  and  cliffs,  through  mountain  gorges 
that  seemed  impracticable,  he  fled,  and  they  followed.  The  air 
resounded  with  the  bark  of  the  dogs.  Presently  one  fastened  on 
his  back,  another  seized  his  shoulder ;  the  rest  of  the  pack  came 
up  and  buried  their  teeth  in  his  flesh.  His  friends  and  fellow- 
huntsmen  cheered  on  the  dogs,  and,  looking  everywhere  for  Actaeon, 
called  on  him  to  join  the  sport.  At  the  sound  of  his  name,  he 
turned  his  head  and  heard  them  regret  that  he  should  be  away. 
He  earnestly  wished  he  was.  But  Diana  had  no  pity  for  him,  nor 
was  her  anger  appeased  till  the  dogs  had  torn  his  life  out. 

96.  The  Fortunes  and  Death  of  Orion.  Orion,  the  son  of  Nep- 
tune, was  a  giant  and  a  mighty  hunter,  whose  prowess  and  manly 
favor  gained  for  him  the  rare  good  will  of  Diana. 

It  is  related  that  he  loved  Merope,  the  daughter  of  CEnopion, 
king  of  Chios,  and  sought  her  in  marriage.  He  cleared  the  island 
of  wild  beasts  and  brought  the  spoils  of  the  chase  as  presents  to 
his  beloved  ;  but  as  CEnopion  constantly  deferred  his  consent, 
Orion  attempted  to  gain  possession  of  the  maiden  by  violence. 
Her  father,  incensed  at  his  conduct,  made  Orion  drunk,  deprived 
him  of  his  sight,  and  cast  him  out  on  the  seashore.  The  blinded 
hero,  instructed  by  an  oracle  to  seek  the  rays  of  morning,  followed 
the  sound  of  a  Cyclops'  hammer  till  he  reached  Lemnos,  where 
Vulcan,  taking  pity  on  him,  gave  him  Cedalion,  one  of  his  men, 
to  be  his  guide  to  the  abode  of  the  sun.  Placing  Cedalion  on  his 
shoulders,  Orion  proceeded  to  the  east,  and  there  meeting  the  sun- 
god,  was  restored  to  sight  by  his  beam.^ 

After  this  he  dwelt  as  a  hunter  with  the  queen  of  the  echoing 
chase ;  and  it  was  even  hinted  that  she  loved  him.  Her  brother, 
highly  displeased,  often  chid  her,  but  to  no  purpose.  One  day, 
therefore,  observing  Orion  as  he  waded  through  the  sea  with  his 
head  just  above  the  water,  Apollo  pointed  out  the  black  object  to 
his  sister,  and  maintained  that  she  could  not  hit  it.  The  archer 
goddess  discharged  a  shaft  with  fatal  aim  :  the  waves  rolled  the 
dead  body  of  Orion  to  the  land.  Then  bewailing  her  fatal  error 
with  many  tears,  Diana  placed  him  among  the  stars,  where  he 
appears  as  a  giant,  with  a  girdle,  sword,  lion's   skin,  and  club. 

1  ApoUodorus,  i,  4,  §  3. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    123 

Sirius,  his  dog,  follows  him,  and  the  Pleiads  fly  before  him.^  In 
the  beginning  of  winter,  all  through  the  night,  Orion  follows  the 
chase  across  the  heavens  ;  but  with  dawn  he  sinks  toward  the 
waters  of  his  father  Neptune.  In  the  beginning  of  summer,  he 
may  be  seen  with  daybreak  in  the  eastern  sky,  where,  beloved  by 
Aurora,  he  remains  gradually  paling  before  the  light  of  day  till, 
finally,  Diana,  jealous  of  his  happiness,  draws  her  gentle  darts 
and  slays  him. 

97.  The  Pleiads, 2   who  still  fly  before  Orion  in  the  heavens, 
were  daughters  of  Atlas,  and  nymphs  of  Diana's  train.    One  day 


Fig.  72.   The  Pleiades 
From  the  painting  by  Vedder 

Orion  saw  them  in  Boeotia,  became  enamored  of  them,  and  gave 
pursuit.  In  their  distress  they  prayed  to  the  gods  to  change  their 
form.  Jupiter,  accordingly,  turned  them  into  pigeons,  and  made 
them  a  constellation.  Though  their  number  was  seven,  only  six 
stars  are  visible ;  for  Electra,  it  is  said,  left  her  place  that  she 
might  not  behold  the  ruin  of  Troy,  which  had  been  founded  by 

1  Ovid,  Fasti,  5,  537  ;  Iliad,  18,  486,  and  22,  29  ;  Odyssey,  5.  121,  274. 

2  The  story  is  told  by  Hyginus  in  his  Fables,  and  in  his  Poetical  Astronomy. 


124 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


her  son  Dardanus.  The  sight  had  such  an  effect  on  her  sisters 
that  they  blanched,  and  have  been  pale  ever  since.  But  Electra 
became  a  comet ;  her  hair  floating  wildly  behind  her,  she  still 
inconsolably  ranges  the  .expanse  of  heaven.  According  to  some, 
the  lost  Pleiad  is  Merope,  who  was  vested  with  mortality  in  conse- 
quence of  her  marriage  with  the  mortal  Sisyphus,  king  of  Corinth. 

Tennyson's  reference 
to  the  Pleiads,  in  "  Locks- 
ley  Hall,"  is  of  course 
familiar  to  all  readers. 

98.  Endymion.  The 
frequent  absence  of  Diana 
from  her  duties  in  heaven 
is  said  to  have  awakened 
suspicion  among  the  dei- 
ties of  Olympus,  who 
doubted  whether  she  actu- 
ally occupied  these  intei 
vals  with  hunting.  It  is 
easy  to  imagine  the  satis- 
faction with  which  Venus, 
who  so  often  had  been 
reproached  by  Diana  with 
her  undue  fondness  of 
beautiful  youths,  would 
welcome  news  of  a  corre- 
sponding weakness  on  the 
part  of  the  cold-hearted 
and  apparently  unyielding 
huntress  queen.  And  such  satisfaction  Venus  once  enjoyed,  if  we 
may  trust  the  later  classical  and  the  modern  poets  who  have  iden- 
tified Diana  with  Selene,  the  more  ancient  goddess  of  the  moon. 

For,  one  calm,  clear  night  Selene  looked  down  upon  the  beau- 
tiful Endymion,  who  fed  his  flock  on  Mount  Latmos,  and  saw 
him  sleeping.  The  heart  of  the  goddess  was  unquestionably  warmed 
by  his  surpassing  beauty.  She  came  down  to  him  ;  she  kissed  him  ; 
she  watched  over  him  while  he  slept.    She  visited  him  again  and 


Fig.  73.    Endymion 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    125 

again.  But  her  secret  could  not  long  be  hidden  from  the  company 
of  Olympus.  For  more  and  more  frequently  she  was  absent  from 
her  station  in  the  sky,  and  toward  morning  she  was  ever  paler 
and  more  weary  with  her  watching.  When,  finally,  her  love  was 
discovered,  Jupiter  gave  Endymion,  who  had  been  thus  honored, 
a  choice  between  death  in  any  manner  that  was  preferable,  or  per- 
petual youth  united  with  perpetual  sleep.  Endymion  chose  the 
latter.  He  still  sleeps  in  his  Carian  cave,  and  still  the  mistress  of 
the  moon  slips  from  her  nocturnal  course  to  visit  him.  She  takes 
care,  too,  that  his  fortunes  shall  not  suffer  by  his  inactive  life  : 
she  yields  his  flock  increase,  and  guards  his  sheep  and  lambs  from 
beasts  of  prey.^ 

Keats,  whose  Endymion  journeys  on  a  mission  under  sea,  thus 
describes  a  meeting  of  the  goddess  and  her  lover : 

On  gold  sand  impearled 
With  lily  shells  and  pebbles  milky  white, 
Poor  Cynthia  greeted  him,  and  soothed  her  light 
Against  his  pallid  face :  he  felt  the  charm 
To  breathlessness,  and  suddenly  a  warm 
Of  his  heart's  blood  :  't  was  very  sweet ;  he  stayed 
His  wandering  steps,  and  half-entranced  laid 
His  head  upon  a  tuft  of  straggling  weeds, 
To  taste  the  gentle  moon,  and  freshening  beads, 
Lashed  from  the  crystal  roof  by  fishes'  tails. 
And  so  he  kept,  until  the  rosy  veils, 
Mantling  the  east,  by  Aurora's  peering  hand 
Were  lifted  from  the  water's  breast,  and  fanned 
Into  sweet  air ;  and  sobered  morning  came 
Meekly  through  billows :  —  when  like  taper-flame 
Left  sudden  by  a  dallying  breath  of  air. 
He  rose  in  silence,  and  once  more  'gan  fare 
Along  his  fated  way.^ 

99.  Myths  of  Venus.  Round  the  goddess  of  love  cluster 
romances  of  her  own  tender  passion,  of  the  affairs  of  the  winged 
Cupid,  and  of  the  loves  of  the  worshipers  at  her  shrine.  Of  the 
affection  of  Venus  for  Mars  and  of  her  relations  with  Anchises,^ 

1  Authorities  are  Pausanias,  5,  i,  §§  2-4  ;  Ovid,  Ars.  Am.  3,  83  ;  Tristia,  2,  299  ;  Apollonius, 
and  ApoUodorus.  2  From  the  Endymion,  Bk.  3.  S  §  jg^. 


126  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

the  father  of  ^neas,  mention  is  elsewhere  made.    The  following 
is  the  myth  of  Venus  and  Adonis. 

100.  Adonis.^  The  sweetly  smiling  goddess,  playing  one  day 
with  her  boy  Cupid,  wounded  her  bosom  with  one  of  his  arrows. 
Before  the  wound  healed,  she  looked  upon  Adonis,  the  son  of 
Cinyras  and  Myrrha,  and  was  captivated  by  him.  She  no  longer 
took  any  interest  in  her  favorite  resorts,  —  Paphos,  and  Cnidos, 
and  Amathus,  rich  in  metals.  She  absented  herself  even  from 
Olympus,  for  Adonis  was  dearer  to  her  than  heaven.  Him  she 
followed  and  bore  him  company.  She  who  loved  to  recline  in 
the  shade,  with  no  care  but  to  cultivate  her  charms,  now  rambled 
through  the  woods  and  over  the  hills,  girt  like  the  huntress  Diana. 
She  chased  game  that  is  safe  to  hunt,  but  kept  clear  of  the  wolves 
and  bears.  She  charged  Adonis,  too,  to  beware  of  dangerous 
animals.  "  Be  brave  toward  the  timid,"  she  would  say,  "courage 
against  the  courageous  is  not  safe."  Having  thus,  on  one  occasion, 
warned  him,  she  mounted  her  chariot  drawn  by  swans  and  drove 
away  through  the  air.  But  Adonis  was  too  noble  to  heed  such 
counsels.  The  dogs  had  roused  a  wild  boar  from  his  lair,  and  the 
youth  threw  his  spear  and  wounded  the  animal  with  a  sidelong 
stroke.  The  beast  drew  out  the  weapon  with  his  jaws,  and,  rushing 
after  Adonis,  buried  his  tusks  in  the  lad's  side,  and  stretched  him 
dying  upon  the  plain.    The  rest  of  the  story  is  thus  recounted  : 

THE  LAMENT  FOR  ADONLS^ 

.  .  .  Low  on  the  hills  is  lying  the  lovely  Adonis,  and  his  thigh  with  the 
boar's  tusk,  his  white  thigh  with  the  boar's  tusk,  is  wounded ;  and  sorrow  on 
Cypris  he  brings,  as  softly  he  breathes  his  life  away. 

His  dark  blood  drips  down  his  skin  of  snow ;  beneath  his  brows  his  eyes 
wax  heavy  and  dim ;  and  the  rose  flees  from  his  lip,  and  thereon  the  very  kiss 
is  dying,  the  kiss  that  Cypris  will  never  forego. 

.  .  .  She  hath  lost  her  lovely  lord,  with  him  she  hath  lost  her  sacred  beauty. 
Fair  was  the  form  of  Cypris  while  Adonis  was  living,  but  her  beauty  has  died 
with  Adonis!     ll^oe,  woe  /or  Cypris,  the  mountains  all  are  saying.    And  the 

1  Ovid,  Metam.  lo,  503-559,  708-739. 

2  From  an  elegy  intended  to  be  sung  at  one  of  the  spring  celebrations  in  memory  of 
.Vdonis.  Translated  from  Bion  by  Andrew  Lang.  Cypris,  Cytherea,  and  the  Paphian  refer 
lo  \enus.  See  Commentary.  This  elegy  is  also  translated  by  Mrs.  Browning  and  by  Sir 
Edwin  Arnold. 


PETWORTH  APHRODITE 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    127 


oak  trees  answer,  Woe  for  Adonis ! 
And  the  rivers  bewail  the  sorrows  of 
Aphrodite,  and  the  wells  are  weeping 
Adonis  on  the  mountains.  The  flowers 
flush  red_  for  anguish,  and  Cytherea 
through  air  the  mountain-knees,  through 
every  dell,  doth  shrill  the  piteous  dirge : 

Woe^   woe  for   Cytherea,   he   hath 
perished^  the  lovely  Adonis ! 

.  .  .  When  she.  saw,  when  she 
marked  the  unstanched  wound  of 
Adonis,  when  she  saw  the  bright  red 
blood  about  his  languid  thigh,  she  cast 
her  arms  abroad,  and  moaned,  "Abide 
with  me,  Adonis,  hapless  Adonis,  abide  ! 
.  .  .  Awake,  Adonis,  for  a  little  while, 
and  kiss  me  yet  again,  the  latest  kiss ! 
.  .  .  This  kiss  will  I  treasure,  even  as 
thyself,  Adonis,  since,  ah,  ill-fated,  thou 
art  fleeing  me,  thou  art  fleeing  far, 
Adonis,  and  art  faring  to  Acheron, 
to  that  hateful  king  and  cruel,  while 
wretched  I  yet  live,  being  a  goddess, 
and  may  not  follow  thee !  Persephone, 
take  thou  my  lover,  my  lord,  for  thy- 
self art  stronger  than  I,  and  all  lovely 
things  drift  down  to  thee.  But  I  am 
ill-fated,  inconsolable  is  my  anguish ; 
and  I  lament  mine  Adonis,  dead  to  me, 
and  I  have  no  rest  for  sorrow. 

"  Thou  diest,  oh,  thrice-desired,  and 
my  desire  hath  flown  away  as  a  dream  ! 
Nay,  widowed  is  Cytherea,  and  idle  are 
the  Loves  along  the  halls !  With  thee  has 
the  girdle  of  my  beauty  perished.  For 
why,  ah,  overbold,  didst  thou  follow  the 
chase,  and  being  so  fair,  why  wert  thou 
thus  overhardy  to  fight  with  beasts  ?  " 

So  Cypris  bewailed  her,  the  Loves 
join  in  the  lament : 

IVoe,  woe  for  Cytherea,  lie  hath 
perished,  the  lovely  Adonis! 


128  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

A  tear  the  Paphian  sheds  for  each  blood-drop  of  Adonis,  and  tears  and 
blood  on  the  earth  are  turned  to  flowers.  The  blood  brings  forth  the  rose ; 
the  tears,  the  wind-flower. 

Woe,  woe  for  Adonis,  he  hath  perished,  the  lovely  Adonis  ! 

...  Cease,  Cytherea,  from  thy  lamentations,  to-day  refrain  from  thy  dirges. 
Thou  must  again  bewail  him,  again  must  weep  for  him  another  year. 

101.  Cupid  and  Psyche.^  A  certain  king  and  queen  had  three 
daughters.  The  charms  of  the  two  elder  were  more  than  common, 
but  the  beauty  of  the  youngest  was  such  that  the  poverty  of  lan- 
guage is  unable  to  express  its  praise.  In  fact,  Venus  found  her 
altars  deserted,  while  men  paid  their  vows  to  this  virgin.  When 
Psyche  passed,  the  people  sang  her  praises  and  strewed  her  way 
with  chaplets  and  flowers. 

This  perv^ersion  of  homage  gave  great  offense  to  Venus,  who 
complained  that  Paris  might  just  as  well  not  have  yielded  her  the 
palm  of  beauty  over  Pallas  and  Juno,  if  a  mortal  were  thus  to  usurp 
her  honors.  Wherefore  she  called  Cupid  and,  pointing  out  Psyche 
to  him,  bade  him  infuse  into  the  bosom  of  that  haughty  girl  a 
passion  for  some  low,  unworthy  being. 

There  were  in  Venus's  garden  two  fountains,  —  one  of  sweet 
waters,  the  other  of  bitter,  Cupid  filled  two  amber  vases,  one  from 
each  fountain,  and  suspending  them  from  the  top  of  his  quiver, 
hastened  to  the  chamber  of  Psyche,  whom  he  found  asleep.  He 
shed  a  few  drops  from  the  bitter  fountain  over  her  lips,  though 
the  sight  of  her  almost  moved  him  to  pity ;  and  then  he  touched 
her  side  with  the  point  of  his  arrow.  She  awoke,  and  opening 
her  eyes  upon  Cupid  (himself  invisible),  so  startled  him  that  in 
his  confusion  he  wounded  himself  with  his  arrow.  Heedless  of 
his  wound,  his  thought  now  was  to  repair  the  mischief  he  had 
done.  He  poured,  at  once,  the  waters  of  joy  over  her  silken 
ringlets. 

But  Psyche,  henceforth  frowned  upon  by  Venus,  derived  no 
benefit  from  her  charms.  Her  two  elder  sisters  had  long  been 
married  to  princes ;  but  Psyche's  beauty  failed  to  awaken  love. 
Consequently  her  parents,  afraid  that  they  had  unwittingly  in- 
curred the  anger  of  the  gods,   consulted  the  oracle  of  Apollo. 

1  Apuleius,  Metam.  Golden  Ass,  4,  28,  etc. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    129 

They  received  answer,  '"  The  virgin  is  destined  for  the  bride  of  no 
mortal  lover.  Her  husband  awaits  her  on  the  top  of  the  mountain. 
He  is  a  monster  whom  neither  gods  nor  men  can  resist." 

This  dreadful  decree  of  the  oracle  filled  the  people  with  dis- 
may ;  but,  at  Psyche's  request,  preparations  for  her  fate  were 
made.  The  royal  maid  took  her  place  in  a  procession,  which 
more  resembled  a  funeral  than  a  nuptial  pomp,  and  with  her 
parents,  amid  the  lamentations  of  their  subjects,  ascended  the 
mountain,  where  she  was  left  alone. 

While  Psyche  stood,  there,  panting  with  fear  and  with  eyes  full 
of  tears,  the  gentle  Zephyr  lifted  her  and,  with  an  easy  motion, 
bore  her  to  a  flowery  dale.  By  degrees  her  mind  became  com- 
posed, and  she  laid  herself  down  on  the  grassy  bank  to  sleep. 
When  she  awoke  refreshed  with  sleep,  she  beheld  near  by  a 
pleasant  grove  of  tall  and  stately  trees.  Entering,  she  discovered 
in  the  midst  a  fountain,  and  fast  by  a  palace  whose  august  front 
showed  that  it  was  not  the  work  of  mortal  hands,  but  the  happy 
retreat  of  some  god.  She  approached  the  building  and  entered. 
Every  object  she  met  filled  her  with  pleasure  and  amazement. 
Golden  pillars  supported  the  vaulted  roof,  and  the  walls  were 
enriched  with  carvings  and  paintings  that  represented  beasts  of 
the  chase  and  rural  scenes.  Other  apartments  were  filled  with 
still  other  beautiful  and  precious  productions  of  nature  and  art. 

While  her  eyes  were  thus  occupied,  the  voice  of  an  invisible 
being  addressed  her  :  ''  Sovereign  lady,  all  that  thou  beholdest  is 
thine.  We  whose  voices  thou  dost  hear  are  thy  servants.  Retire, 
we  pray  thee,  to  thy  chamber,  repose  on  thy  bed  of  down,  and 
when  it  may  please  thee  repair  to  the  bath.  Food  awaits  in  the 
adjoining  alcove." 

After  repose  and  the  refreshment  of  the  bath.  Psyche  seated 
herself  in  the  alcove,  where,  without  any  visible  aid,  a  table  imme- 
diately presented  itself,  covered  with  delicacies  and  nectareous 
wines.  Her  ears,  too,  were  delighted  with  music  from  invisible 
performers. 

For  a  long  time  she  did  not  see  her  husband.  He  came  in  the 
hours  of  darkness  and  fled  before  the  dawn  of  morning ;  but  his 
accents  were  full  of  love  and  inspired  a  like  passion  in  her.   Often 


i^o 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


she  begged  him  to  stay  and  let  her  behold  him,  but  lie  would  not 
consent.  "  Having  looked  upon  me,"  he  said,  "  mayhap  thou 
wouldst  fear,  mayhap  adore,  me ;  but  all  I  ask  of  thee  is  love.  I 
would  rather  thou  shouldst  love  me  as  an  equal  than  adore  me  as 
a  god."  This  reasoning  somewhat  quieted  Psyche  for  a  time.  But 
the  thought  of  her  parents  and  of  her  sisters,  left  in  ignorance 

of  her  fate,  preyed  on  her 
mind  to  such  a  degree  that 
at  last,  telling  her  distress 
to  her  lord,  she  drew  from 
him  an  unwilling  consent 
that  her  sisters  should  be 
brought  to  see  her. 

Zephyr,  promptly  obe- 
dient, soon  brought  them 
across  the  mountain  down 
to  their  sister's  valley.  They 
embraced  her.  She  returned 
their  caresses,  and  then  com- 
mitted them  to  the  care  of 
her  attendant  voices,  who 
should  refresh  them  in  her 
bath  and  at  her  table,  and 
show  them  her  treasures. 
The  view  of  these  delights 
caused  envy  to  enter  their 
bosoms.  They  plied  their 
fortunate  sister  with  ques- 
tions about  her  husband. 
Psyche  replied  that  he  was 
a  beautiful  youth,  who  generally  spent  the  daytime  in  hunting 
upon  the  mountains.  The  sisters,  not  satisfied  with  this  reply, 
soon  made  her  confess  that  she  had  never  seen  him.  Then  they 
proceeded  to  fill  her  bosom  with  dark  suspicions.  Probably  her 
husband  was  a  dreadful  monster,  such  as  the  Pythian  oracle  had 
prophesied.  Probably  he  was  a  direful  serpent,  who  nourished 
her  now  to  devour  her  by  and  by.    They  advised  her  to  provide 


I-ic 


75.    Psyche  at  the  Cuuch  of  Cvi'iu 
From  the  painting  by  Thumann 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    131 

herself  against  the  night  with  a  lamp  and  a  sharp  knife,  told  her 
what  to  do  if  her  husband  turned  out  the  monster  that  they  sur- 
mised, and,  so  saying,  departed. 

These  persuasions  Psyche  resisted  as  well  as  she  could,  but  they 
did  not  fail  to  have  their  effect  on  her  mind.  She  prepared  a  lamp 
and  a  sharp  knife,  and  hid  them  out  of  sight  of  her  husband.  That 
night,  when  he  had  fallen  into  his  first  sleep,  she  silently  rose  and 
uncovering  her  lamp  — 

Scarce  kept  back  a  cry 
At  what  she  saw ;  for  there  before  her  lay 
The  very  Love  brighter  than  dawn  of  day ; 
And  as  he  lay  there  smiling,  her  own  name 
His  gentle  lips  in  sleep  began  to  frame, 
And,  as  to  touch  her  face,  his  hand  did  mo\-e ; 
O  then,  indeed,  her  faint  heart  swelled  for  love, 
And  she  began  to  sob,  and  tears  fell  fast 
Upon  the  bed.  —  But  as  she  turned  at  last 
To  quench  the  lamp,  there  happed  a  little  thing 
That  quenched  her  new  delight,  for  flickering 
The  treacherous  flame  cast  on  his  shoulder  fair 
A  burning  drop ;  he  woke,  and  seeing  her  there 
The  meaning  of  that  sad  sight  knew  full  well, 
Nor  was  there  need  the  piteous  tale  to  tell.^ 

Without  a  word,  Cupid  spread  his  white  wings,  and  flew  out  of 
window.  Psyche,  in  vain  endeavoring  to  follow,  fell  to  the  earth. 
For  but  an  instant  Cupid,  staying,  reproached  her  with  distrust  of 
him.  "  No  other  punishment  inflict  I  than  to  leave  thee  forever. 
Love  cannot  dwell  with  suspicion."    And  so  he  flew  away. 

When  Psyche  had  recovered  some  degree  of  composure,  she 
looked  around  her.  The  palace  and  gardens  had  vanished.  She 
found  herself  not  far  from  the  city  where  her  sisters  dwelt. 
Thither  she  repaired,  and  told  them  the  story  of  her  misfortunes, 
whereat  they  inwardly  rejoiced.  "  For  now,"  thought  they,  "  he 
will  perhaps  choose  one  of  us."  With  this  id«a,  they  rose  early 
the  next  morning  and,  ascending  the  mountain,  each  called  upon 
Zephyr  to  receive  her  and  bear  her  to  his  lord ;  then,  leaping  up, 

1  William  Morris,  The  Story  of  Cupid  and  Psyche,  in  The  Earthly  Paradise. 


132  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

failed  of  the  support  of  Zephyr,  fell  down  the  precipice,  and  was 
dashed  to  pieces. 

Psyche,  meanwhile,  wandered  day  and  night,  without  food  or 
repose,  in  search  of  her  husband.  But  he  was  lying  heartsick  in 
the  chamber  of  his  mother ;  and  that  goddess  was  absent  upon  her 
own  affairs.  Then  the  white  sea  gull  which  floats  over  the  waves 
dived  into  the  middle  deep, 

And  rowing  with  his  glistening  wings  arrived 
At  Aphrodite's  bower  beneath  the  sea. 

She,  as  yet  unaware  of  her  son's  mischance,  was  joyously  consort- 
ing with  her  handmaidens  ;  but  he,  the  sea  gull, 

But  he  with  garrulous  and  laughing  tongue 

Broke  up  his  news ;  how  Eros  fallen  sick 

Lay  tossing  on  his  bed,  to  frenzy  stung 

By  such  a  burn  as  did  but  barely  prick : 

A  little  bleb,  no  bigger  than  a  pease. 

Upon  his  shoulder  't  was,  that  killed  his  ease. 

Fevered  his  heart,  and  made  his  breathing  thick. 

"  For  which  disaster  hath  he  not  been  seen 

This  many  a  day  at  all  in  any  place : 

And  thou,  dear  mistress,"  said  he,  "  hast  not  been 

Thyself  among  us  now  a  dreary  space : 

And  pining  mortals  suffer  from  a  dearth 

Of  love ;  and  for  this  sadness  of  the  earth 

Thy  family  is  darkened  with  disgrace.  .  .  . 

"  'T  is  plain  that,  if  thy  pleasure  longer  pause, 
Thy  mighty  rule  on  earth  hath  seen  its  day : 
The  race  must  come  to  perish,  and  no  cause 
But  that  thou  sittest  with  thy  nymphs  at  play, 
While  on  the  Cretan  hills  thy  truant  boy 
Has  with  his  pretty  mistress  turned  to  toy, 
And,  less  for  pain  than  love,  now  pines  away."  ^ 

And  Venus  cried  angrily,  "  My  son,  then,  has  a  mistress  !  And 
it  is  Psyche,  who  witched  away  my  beauty  and  was  the  rival  of  my 
godhead,  whom  he  loves  !  " 

1  Robert  Bridges,  Eros  and  Psyche. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    133 

Therewith  she  issued  from  the  sea,  and,  returning  to  her  golden 
chamber,  found  there  the  lad  sick,  as  she  had  heard,  and  cried 
from  the  doorway,  "  Well  done,  truly !  to  trample  thy  mother's 
precepts  under  foot,  to  spare  my  enemy  that  cross  of  an  unworthy 
love  ;  nay,  unite  her  to  thyself,  child  as  thou  art,  that  I  might  have 
a  daughter-in-law  who  hates  me  !  I  will  make  thee  repent  of  thy 
sport,  and  the  savor  of  thy  marriage  bitter.  There  is  one  who  shall 
chasten  this  body  of  thine,  put  out  thy  torch,  and  unstring  thy  bow. 
Not  till  she  has  plucked  forth  that  hair,  into  which  so  oft  these 
hands  have  smoothed  the  golden  light,  and  sheared  away  thy 
wings,  shall  I  feel  the  injury  done  me  avenged."  And  with  this 
she  hastened  in  anger  from  the  doors. 

And  Ceres  and  Juno  met  her,  and  sought  to  know  the  meaning 
of  her  troubled  countenance.  "  Ye  come  in  season,"  she  cried  ;  "  I 
pray  you,  find  for  me  Psyche.  It  must  needs  be  that  ye  have  heard 
the  disgrace  of  my  house."  And  they,  ignorant  of  what  was  done, 
would  have  soothed  her  anger,  saying,  "  What  fault.  Mistress,  hath 
thy  son  committed,  that  thou  wouldst  destroy  the  girl  he  loves  .'' 
Knowest  thou  not  that  he  is  now  of  age  ?  Because  he  wears  his 
years  so  lightly  must  he  seem  to  thee  ever  to  be  a  child  ?  Wilt 
thou  forever  thus  pry  into  the  pastimes  of  thy  son,  always  accusing 
his  wantonness,  and  blaming  in  him  those  delicate  wiles  which  are 
all  thine  own.?"  Thus,  in  secret  fear  of  the  boy's  bow,  did  they 
seek  to  please  him  with  their  gracious  patronage.  But  Venus, 
angry  at  their  light  taking  of  her  wrongs,  turned  her  back  upon 
them,  and  with  hasty  steps  made  her  way  once  more  to  the  sea.^ 

And  soon  after.  Psyche  herself  reached  the  temple  of  Ceres, 
where  she  won  the  favor  of  the  goddess  by  arranging  in  due  order 
the  heaps  of  mingled  grain  and  ears  and  the  carelessly  scattered 
harvest  implements  that  lay  there.  The  holy  Ceres  then  coun- 
seled her  to  submit  to  Venus,  to  try  humbly  to  win  her  forgive- 
ness, and,  mayhap,  through  her  favor  regain  the  lover  that 
was  lost. 

Obeying  the  commands  of  Ceres,  Psyche  took  her  way  to  the 
temple  of  the  golden-crowned  Cypris.  That  goddess  received  her 
with    angry    countenance,  called    her  an   undutiful  and  faithless 

1  The  last  three  paragraphs  are  from  Pater's  version  in  Marius  the  Epicurean. 


134  1'HE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

servant,  taunted  her  with  the  wound  given  to  her  husband,  and 
insisted  that  for  so  ill-favored  a  girl  there  was  no  way  of  meriting  a 
lover  save  by  dint  of  industry.  Thereupon  she  ordered  Psyche  to 
be  led  to  the  storehouse  of  the  temple,  where  was  laid  up  a  great 
quantity  of  wheat,  barley,  millet,  vetches,  beans,  and  lentils  pre- 
pared for  food  for  her  pigeons,  and  gave  order,  "  Take  and  sepa- 
rate all  these  grains,  putting  all  of  the  same  kind  in  a  parcel  by 
themselves,  —  and  see  that  thou. get  it  done  before  evening."  This 
said,  Venus  departed  and  left  the  girl  to  her  task.  But  Psyche,  in 
perfect  consternation  at  the  enormous  task,  sat  stupid  and  silent ; 
nor  would  the  work  have  been  accomplished  had  not  Cupid  stirred 
up  the  ants  to  take  compassion  on  her.  They  separated  the  pile, 
sorting  each  kind  to  its  parcel  and  vanishing  out  of  sight  in  a 
moment. 

At  the  approach  of  twilight,  Cytherea  returned  from  the  banquet 
of  the  gods,  breathing  odors  and  crowned  with  roses.  Seeing  the 
task  done,  she  promptly  exclaimed,  '"  This  is  no  work  of  thine, 
wicked  one,  but  his,  whom  to  thine  own  and  his  misfortune  thou 
hast  enticed," — -threw  the  girl  a  piece  of  black  bread  for  her 
supper,  and  departed. 

Next  morning,  however,  the  goddess,  ordering  Psyche  to  be  sum- 
moned, commanded  her  to  fetch  a  sample  of  wool  gathered  from 
each  of  the  golden-shining  sheep  that  fed  beyond  a  neighboring 
river.  Obediently  the  princess  went  to  the  riverside,  prepared  to 
do  her  best  to  execute  the  command.  But  the  god  of  that  stream 
inspired  the  reeds  with  harmonious  murmurs  that  dissuaded  her 
from  venturing  among  the  golden  rams  while  they  raged  under 
the  influence  of  the  rising  sun.  Psyche,  observing  the  directions 
of  the  compassionate  river-god,  crossed  when  the  noontide  sun 
had  driven  the  cattle  to  the  shade,  gathered  the  woolly  gold  from 
the  bushes  where  it  was  clinging,  and  returned  to  Venus  with  her 
arms  full  of  the  shining  fleece.  But,  far  from  commending  her, 
that  implacable  mistress  said,  "  I  know  very  well  that  by  the  aid  of 
another  thou  hast  done  this  ;  not  yet  am  I  assured  that  thou  hast 
skill  to  be.  of  use.  Here,  now,  take  this  box  to  Proserpine  and  say, 
'  My  mistress  Venus  entreats  thee  to  send  her  a  little  of  thy  beauty, 
for  in  tending  her  sick  son  she  hath  lost  some  of  her  own.'  " 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DlVlNniES  OF  HEAVEN    135 

Psyche,  satisfied  that  her  destruction  was  at  liand,  doomed  as 
she  was  to  travel  afoot  to  Erebus,  thought  to  shorten  the  journey 
by  precipitating  herself  at  once  from  the  summit  of  a  tower.  But 
a  voice  from  the  tower,  restraining  her  from  this  rash  purpose, 
explained  how  by  a  certain  cave  she  might  reach  the  realm  of 
Pluto ;  how  she  might  avoid  the  peril  of  the  road,  pass  by  Cer- 
berus, and  prevail  on  Charon  to  take  her  across  the  black  river 
and  bring  her  back  again.  The  voice,  also,  especially  cautioned  her 
against  prying  into  the  box  filled  with  the  beauty  of  Proserpine. 

So,  taking  heed  to  her  ways,  the  unfortunate  girl  traveled  safely 
to  the  kingdom  of  Pluto.  She  was  admitted  to  the  palace  of 
Proserpine,  where,  contenting  herself  with  plain  fare  instead  of  the 
delicious  banquet  that  was  offered  her,  she  delivered  her  message 
from  Venus.  Presently  the  box,  filled  with  the  precious  commodity, 
was  restored  to  her  ;  and  glad  was  she  to  come  out  once  more  into 
the  light  of  day. 

But  having  got  so  far  successfully  through  her  dangerous  task,  a 
desire  seized  her  to  examine  the  contents  of  the  box,  and  to  spread 
the  least  bit  of  the  divine  beauty  on  her  cheeks  that  she  might 
appear  to  more  advantage  in  the  eyes  of  her  beloved  husband. 

Therewith  down  by  the  wayside  did  she  sit 
And  turned  the  box  round,  long  regarding  it ; 
But  at  the  last,  with  trembling  hands,  undid 
The  clasp,  and  fearfully  raised  up  the  lid ; 
But  what  was  there  she  saw  not,  for  her  head 
Fell  back,  and  nothing  she  remembered 
Of  all  her  life,  yet  nought  of  rest  she  had. 
The  hope  of  which  makes  hapless  mortals  glad ; 
For  while  her  limbs  were  sunk  in  deadly  sleep 
Most  like  to  death,  over  her  heart  'gan  creep 
111  dreams ;   so  that  for  fear  and  great  distress 
She  would  have  cried,  but  in  her  helplessness 
Could  open  not  her  mouth,  or  frame  a  word.^ 

But  Cupid,  now  recovered  from  his  wound,  slipped  through  a 
crack  in  the  window  of  his  chamber,  flew  to  the  spot  where  his 
beloved  lay,  gathered  up  the  sleep  from  her  body  and  inclosed  it 

1  William  Morris,  The  Earthly  Paradise. 


136 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


again  in  the  box,  then  waked  Psyche  with  the  touch  of  an  arrow. 
"Again,"  said  he,  "hast  thou  almost  perished  by  thy  curiosity. 

But  now  perform  the  task 
imposed  upon  thee  by  my 
mother,  and  I  will  care 
for  the  rest." 

Then  Cupid,  swift  as 
lightning  penetrating  the 
heights  of  heaven,  pre- 
sented himself  before  Jupi- 
ter with  his  supplication. 
Jupiter  lent  a  favoring  ear 
and  pleaded  the  cause  of 
the  lovers  with  Venus. 
Gaining  her  consent,  he 
ordered  Mercury  to  con- 
vey Psyche  to  the  heavenly 
abodes.  On  her  advent, 
the  king  of  the  immortals, 
handing  her  a  cup  of  am- 
brosia, said,  "  Drink  this, 
Psyche,  and  be  immortal. 
Thy  Cupid  shall  never  break 
from  the  knot  in  which  he 
is  tied ;  these  nuptials  shall 
indeed  be  perpetual." 
Thus  Psyche  was  at  last  united  to  Cupid ;  and  in  due  season  a 
daughter  was  born  to  them  whose  name  was  Pleasure. 

The  allegory  of  Cupid  and  Psyche  is  well  presented  in  the  follow- 
ing lines : 

They  wove  bright  fables  in  the  days  of  old, 

When  reason  borrowed  fancy's  painted  wings; 
When  truth's  clear  river  flowed  o'er  sands  of  gold, 

And  told  in  song  its  high  and  mystic  things ! 
And  such  the  sweet  and  solemn  tale  of  her 

The  pilgrim-heart,  to  whom  a  dream  was  given, 
That  led  her  through  the  world,  —  Love's  worshiper,  — 
To  seek  on  earth  for  him  whose  home  was  heaven ! 


Fig.  76.   Psyche  and  Cufid  on  Mount 
Olympus 

From  the  painting  by  Thumann 


EROS   WITH    ROW 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    137 

In  the  full  city,  — by  the  haunted  fount,  — 

Through  the  dim  grotto's  tracery  of  spars,  — 
'Mid  the  pine  temples,  on  the  moonlit  mount, 

Where  silence  sits  to  listen  to  the  stars ; 
In  the  deep  glade  where  dwells  the  brooding  dove, 

The  painted  valley,  and  the  scented  air. 
She  heard  far  echoes  of  the  voice  of  Love, 

And  found  his  footsteps'  traces  everywhere. 

But  never  more  they  met !  since  doubts  and  fears. 

Those  phantom-shapes  that  haunt  and  blight  the  earth, 

Had  come  'twixt  her,  a  child  of  sin  and  tears, 
And  that  bright  spirit  of  immortal  birth ; 

Until  her  pining  soul  and  weeping  eyes 

Had  learned  to  seek  him  only  in  the  skies ; 

Till  wings  unto  the  weary  heart  were  given. 

And  she  became  Love's  angel  bride  in  heaven  !  ^ 

The  story  of  Cupid  and  Psyche  first  appears  in  the  works  of 
Apuleius,  a  writer  of  the  second  centur}'  of  our  era.  It  is  there- 
fore of  much  more  recent  date  than  most  of  the  classic  myths. 

102.  Keats'  Ode  to  Psyche.  To  this  fact  allusion  is  made  in  the 
following  poem  : 

0  Goddess !  hear  these  tuneless  numbers,  wrung 
By  sweet  enforcement  and  remembrance  dear, 

And  pardon  that  thy  secrets  should  be  sung 

Even  into  thine  own  soft-conched  ear : 
Surely  I  dreamt  to-day,  or  did  I  see 

The  winged  Psyche  with  awakened  eyes  1 

1  wandered  in  a  forest  thoughtlessly. 
And,  on  the  sudden,  fainting  with  surprise. 

Saw  two  fair  creatures,  couched  side  by  side 
In  deepest  grass,  beneath  the  whispering  roof 
Of  leaves  and  tumbled  blossoms,  where  there  ran 

A  brooklet,  scarce  espied  ! 

'Mid  hushed,  cool-rooted  flowers,  fragrant-eyed, 

Blue,  silver-white,  and  budded  Tyrian, 
They  lay  calm-breathing  on  the  bedded  grass ; 

Their  arms  embraced,  and  their  pinions,  too ; 

Their  lips  touched  not,  but  had  not  bade  adieu, 

1  By  T.  K.  Hervey. 


138  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

As  if  disjoined  by  soft-handed  slumber, 
And  ready  still  past  kisses  to  outnumber 
At  tender  eye-dawn  of  Aurorean  love : 

The  winged  boy  I  knew : 
But  who  wast  thou,  O  happy,  happy  dove? 
His  Psyche  true ! 

O  latest  born  and  loveliest  vision  far 

Of  all  Olympus'  faded  hierarchy  ! 
Fairer  than  Phoebe's  sapphire-regioned  star, 

Or  Vesper,  amorous  glowworm  of  the  sky : 
Fairer  than  these,  though  temple  thou  hast  none, 

Nor  altar  heaped  with  flowers  ; 
Nor  virgin-choir  to  make  delicious  moan 

Upon  the  midnight  hours ; 
No  voice,  no  lute,  no  pipe,  no  incense  sweet 

From  chain-swung  censer  teeming ; 
No  shrine,  no  grove,  no  oracle,  no  heat 

Of  pale-mouthed  prophet  dreaming. 

0  brightest !  though  too  late  for  antique  vows 
Too,  too  late  for  the  fond  believing  lyre. 

When  holy  were  the  haunted  forest  boughs, 
Holy  the  air,  the  water,  and  the  fire ; 

Yet  even  in  these  days  so  far  retired 
From  happy  pieties,  thy  lucent  fans. 
Fluttering  among  the  faint  Olympians, 

1  see,  and  sing,  by  my  own  eyes  inspired. 
So  let  me  be  thy  choir,  and  make  a  moan 

Upon  the  midnight  hours ; 
Thy  voice,  thy  lute,  thy  pipe,  thy  incense  sweet 

From  swinged  censer  teeming, 
Thy  shrine,  thy  grove,  thy  oracle,  thy  heat 

Of  pale-mouthed  prophet  dreaming. 

Yes,  I  will  be  thy  priest,  and  build  a  fane 

In  some  untrodden  region  of  my  mind, 
Where  branched  thoughts,  new  grown  with  pleasant  pain. 

Instead  of  pines  shall  murmur  in  the  wind : 
Far,  far  around  shall  those  dark  clustered  trees 

Fledge  the  wild-ridg&d  mountains  steep  by  steep ; 
And  there  by  zephyrs,  streams,  and  birds  and  bees, 

The  moss-lain  Dryads  shall  be  lulled  to  sleep ; 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    139 

And  in  the  midst  of  this  wide  quietness 

A  rosy  sanctuary  will  I  dress 

With  the  wreathed  trellis  of  a  working  brain, 

With  buds,  and  bells,  and  stars  without  a  name. 
With  all  the  gardener  Fancy  e'er  could  feign. 

Who  breeding  flowers,  will  never  breed  the  same ; 
And  there  shall  be  for  thee  all  soft  delight 

That  shadowy  thought  can  win, 
A  bright  torch,  and  a  casement  ope  at  night. 

To  let  the  warm  Love  in  ! 

The  loves  of  the  devotees  of  Venus  are  as  the  sands  of  the  sea 
for  number.  Below  are  given  the  fortunes  of  a  few  :  Hippomenes, 
Hero,  Pygmalion,  Pyramus,  and  Phaon.  The 
favor  of  the  goddess  toward  Paris,  who  awarded 
her  the  palm  of  beauty  in  preference  to  Juno 
and  Minerva,  will  occupy  our  attention  in  con- 
nection with  the  stoiy  of  the  Trojan  War. 

103.  Atalanta's  Race.^  Atalanta,  the  daugh- 
ter of  Schoeneus  of  Boeotia,  had  been  warned 
by  an  oracle  that  marriage  would  be  fatal  to  her 
happiness.  Consequently  she  fled  the  society 
of  men  and  devoted  herself  to  the  sports  of  the 
chase.  Fair,  fearless,  swift,  and  free,  in  beauty 
and  in  desire  she  was  a  Cynthia,  —  of  mortal 
form  and  with  a  woman's  heart.  To  all  suitors 
(for  she  had  many)  she  made  answer :  "I  will 
be  the  prize  of  him  only  who  shall  conquer  me 
in  the  race ;  but  death  must  be  the  penalty  of 
all  who  try  and  fail,"  In  spite  of  this  hard  con- 
dition some  would  try.  Of  one  such  race  Hip- 
pomenes was  to  be  judge.  It  was  his  thought, 
at  first,  that  these  suitors  risked  too  much  for 
a  wife.  But  when  he  saw  Atalanta  lay  aside  her 
robe  for  the  race  with  one  of  them,  he  changed  his  mind  and 
began  to  swell  with  envy  of  whomsoever  seemed  likely  to  win. 

The  virgin  darted  forward.    As  she  ran  she  looked  more  beauti- 
ful than  ever.    The  breezes  gave  wings  to  her  feet ;  her  hair  flew 

1  Ovid,  Metam.  lo,  560-680. 


.  77.    Artemis 
OF  Gabii 


140 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


over  her  shoulders,  and  the  gay  fringe  of  her  garment  fluttered 
behind  her,  A  ruddy  hue  tinged  the  whiteness  of  her  skin,  such 
as  a  crimson  curtain  casts  on  a  marble  wall.  Her  competitor  was 
distanced  and  was  put  to  death  without  mercy.  Hippomenes,  not 
daunted  by  this  result,  fixed  his  eyes  on  the  virgin  and  said,  "  Why 
boast  of  beating  those  laggards  ?  I  offer  myself  for  the  contest." 
Atalanta  looked  at  him  with  pity  in  her  face  and  hardly  knew 
whether  she  would  rather  conquer  so  goodly  a  youth  or  not.  While 


P'lG,  78.    Atalanta's  Race 
From  the  painting  by  Poynter 

she  hesitated,  the  spectators  grew  impatient  for  tliC  contest  and 
her  father  prompted  her  to  prepare.  Then  Hippomenes  addressed 
a  prayer  to  Cypris  :  "  Help  me,  Venus,  for  thou  hast  impelled 
me."    Venus  heard  and  was  propitious. 

She  gathered  three  golden  apples  from  the  garden  of  her  tem- 
ple in  her  own  island  of  Cyprus  and,  unseen  by  any,  gave  them  to 
Hippomenes,  telling  him  how  to  use  them.  Atalanta  and  her  lover 
were  ready.  The  signal  was  given. 

They  both  started ;  he,  by  one  stride,  first, 
For  she  half  pitied  him  so  beautiful. 
Running  to  meet  his  death,  yet  was  resolved 
To  conquer :  soon  she  near'd  him,  and  he  felt 
The  rapid  and  repeated  gush  of  breath 
Behind  his  shoulder. 

From  his  hand  now  dropt 
A  golden  apple  :  she  lookt  down  and  saw 
A  glitter  on  the  grass,  yet  on  she  ran. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    141 

He  dropt  a  second ;  now  she  seem'd  to  stoop  : 
He  dropt  a  third ;  and  now  she  stoopt  indeed : 
Yet,  swifter  than  a  wren  picks  up  a  grain 
Of  millet,  rais'd  her  head :  it  was  too  late, 
Only  one  step,  only  one  breath,  too  late. 
Hippomenes  had  toucht  the  maple  goal 
With  but  two  fingers,  leaning  pronely  forth. 
She  stood  in  mute  despair  ;  the  prize  was  won. 

Now  each  walkt  slowly  fonvard,  both  so  tired. 
And  both  alike  breathed  hard,  and  stopt  at  times. 
When  he  turn'd  round  to  her,  she  lowered  her  face 
Cover'd  with  blushes,  and  held  out  her  hand, 
The  golden  apple  in  it. 

"  Leave  me  now," 
Said  she,  "  I  must  walk  homeward." 

He  did  take 
The  apple  and  the  hand. 

"  Both  I  detain," 
Said  he,  "  the  other  two  I  dedicate 
To  the  two  Powers  that  soften  virgin  hearts, 
Eros  and  Aphrodite ;  and  this  one 
To  her  who  ratifies  the  nuptial  vow." 

She  would  have  wept  to  see  her  father  weep  ; 
But  some  God  pitied  her,  and  purple  wings 
(What  God's  were  they  ?)  hovered  and  interposed.^ 

But  the  oracle  was  yet  to  be  fulfilled.  The  lovers,  full  of  their 
own  happiness,  after  all,  forgot  to  pay  due  honor  to  Aphrodite, 
and  the  goddess  was  provoked  at  their  ingratitude.  She  caused 
them  to  give  offense  to  Cybele.  That  powerful  goddess  took  from 
them  their  human  form :  the  huntress  heroine,  triumphing  in  the 
blood  of  her  lovers,  she  made  a  lioness  ;  her  lord  and  master  a  lion, 
—  and  yoked  them  to  her  car,  where  they  are  still  to  be  seen  in  all 
representations  in  statuary  or  painting  of  the  goddess  Cybele. 

104.  Hero  and  Leander  were  star-crossed  lovers  of  later  classical 
fiction.^  Although  their  story  is  not  of  supernatural  beings,  or  of 
events  necessarily  influenced  by  supernatural  agencies,  and  there- 
fore not  mythical  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word,  it  deserves  to  be 

1  From  W.  S.  Lander's  Hippomenes  and  Atalanta. 

2  The  poetical  passages  are  from  Marlowe's  Hero  and  Leander,  First  Sestiad.  Marlowe's 
narrative  was  completed  by  Chapman.  See  Musasus  of  Alexandria,  De  Amore  Herois  et 
Leandri;   Virg.  Georg.  3,  258  ;  Ovid,  Her.  iS,  19  ;  Stat.  Theb.  6,  770. 


142  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

included  here  both  because  of  its  pathetic  beauty  and  its  long  literary 
tradition.    The  poet  Marlowe  puts  the  story  into  English  thus  : 

On  Hellespont,  guilty  of  true  love's  blood, 
In  view  and  opposite  two  cities  stood, 
Sea-borderers,  disjoin'd  by  Neptune's  might 
The  one  Abydos,  the  other  Sestos  hight. 
At  Sestos  Hero  dwelt ;  Hero  the  fair. 
Whom  young  Apollo  courted  for  her  hair, 
And  offer'd  as  a  dower  his  burning  throne, 
Where  she  should  sit,  for  men  to  gaze  upon.  .  .  . 
Some  say,  for  her  the  fairest  Cupid  pin'd, 
And,  looking  in  her  face,  was  strooken  blind. 
But  this  is  true :  so  like  was  one  the  other. 
As  he  imagined  Hero  was  his  mother ; 
And  oftentimes  into  her  bosom  flew, 
About  her  naked  neck  his  bare  arms  threw. 
And  laid  his  childish  head  upon  her  breast, 
And,  with  still  panting  rockt,  there  took  his  rest. 

In  Abydos  dwelt  the  manly  Leander,  who,  as  luck  would  have 
it,  bethought  himself  one  day  of  the  festival  of  Venus  in  Sestos, 
and  thither  fared  to  do  obeisance  to  the  goddess. 

On  this  feast-day,  —  O  curs&d  day  and  hour !  — 

Went  Hero  thorough  Sestos,  from  her  tower 

To  Venus'  temple,  where  unhappily. 

As  after  chanc'd,  they  did  each  other  spy. 

So  fair  a  church  as  this  had  Venus  none ; 

The  walls  were  of  discolored  jasper-stone,  .  .  . 

And  in  the  midst  a  silver  altar  stood  : 

There  Hero,  sacrificing  turtle's  blood, 

Vail'd  to  the  ground,  veiling  her  eyelids  close ; 

And  modestly  they  opened  as  she  rose  : 

Thence  flew  Love's  arrow  with  the  golden  head  ; 

And  thus  Leander  was  enamoured. 

Stone-still  he  stood,  and  evermore  he  gaz'd, 

Till  with  the  fire,  that  from  his  countenance  blaz'd. 

Relenting  Hero's  gende  heart  was  strook : 

Such  power  and  virtue  hath  an  amorous  look. 

It  lies  not  in  our  power  to  love  or  hate. 
For  will  in  us  is  overrul'd  by  fate. 
When  two  are  stript  long  e'er  the  course  begin, 
We  wish  that  one  should  lose,  the  other  win : 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    143 

And  one  especially  do  we  affect 
Of  two  gold  ingots,  like  in  each  respect : 
The  reason  no  man  knows ;  let  it  suffice, 
What  we  behold  is  censur'd  by  our  eyes. 
Where  both  deliberate,  the  love  is  slight : 
Who  ever  lov'd,  that  lov'd  not  at  first  sight  ? 

He  kneel'd  ;  but  unto  her  devoutly  prayed  : 
Chaste  Hero  to  herself  thus  softly  said, 
"  Were  I  the  saint  he  worships,  I  would  hear  him  "  ; 
And,  as  she  spake  those  words,  came  somewhat  near  him. 
He  started  up  ;  she  blush'd  as  one  asham'd ; 
Wherewith  Leander  much  more  was  inflam'd. 
He  touch'd  her  hand  ;  in  touching  it  she  trembled  : 
Love  deeply  grounded,  hardly  is  dissembled.  .  .  . 

So  they  conversed  by  touch  of  hands,  till  Leander,  plucking  up 
courage,  began  to  plead  with  words,  with  sighs  and  tears. 

These  arguments  he  us'd,  and  many  more ; 

Wherewith  she  yielded,  that  was  won  before. 

Hero's  looks  yielded,  but  her  words  made  war : 

Women  are  won  when  they  begin  to  jar. 

Thus  having  swallow'd  Cupid's  golden  hook. 

The  more  she  striv'd,  the  deeper  was  she  strook : 

Yet,  evilly  feigning  anger,  strove  she  still. 

And  would  be  thought  to  grant  against  her  will. 

So  having  paus'd  awhile,  at  last  she  said, 

"  Who  taught  thee  rhetoric  to  deceive  a  maid .'' 

Ay  me !  such  words  as  these  should  I  abhor, 

And  yet  I  like  them  for  the  orator." 

With  that  Leander  stoop'd  to  have  embrac'd  her. 

But  from  his  spreading  arms  away  she  cast  her. 

And  thus  bespake  him  :   "  Gentle  youth,  forbear 

To  touch  the  sacred  garments  which  I  wear."  .  .  . 

Then  she  told  him  of  the  turret  by  the  murmuring  sea  where 
all  day  long  she  tended  Venus'  swans  and  sparrows  : 

"  Come  thither."    As  she  spake  this,  her  tongue  tripp'd. 

For  unawares,  "  Come  thither,"  from  her  slipp'd  ; 

And  suddenly  her  former  color  chang'd. 

And  here  and  there  her  eyes  through  anger  rang'd ; 

And,  like  a  planet  moving  several  ways 

At  one  self  instant,  she,  poor  soul,  assays, 


144  'THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Loving,  not  to  love  at  all,  and  every  part 

Strove  to  resist  the  motions  of  her  heart : 

And  hands  so  pure,  so  innocent,  nay,  such 

As  might  have  made  Heaven  stoop  to  have  a  touch. 

Did  she  uphold  to  Venus,  and  again 

Vow'd  spotless  chastity  ;   but  all  in  vain  ; 

Cupid  beats  down  her  prayers  with  his  wings.  .  .  . 

For  a  season  all  went  well.  Guided  by  a  torch  which  his  mis- 
tress reared  upon  the  tower,  he  was  wont  of  nights  to  swim  the 
strait  that  he  might  enjoy  her  company.    But  one  night  a  tempest 


Fig.  79.    Hero  and  Leandkr 
From  the  painting  by  Keller 

arose  and  the  sea  was  rough  ;  his  strength  failed  and  he  was 
drowned.  The  waves  bore  his  body  to  the  European  shore,  where 
Hero  became  aware  of  his  death,  and  in  her  despair  cast  herself 
into  the  sea  and  perished. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    145 

A  picture  of  the  drowning  Leander  is  thus  described  by  Keats  :  ^ 

Come  hither  all  sweet  maidens  soberly, 

Down  looking  aye,  and  with  a  chasten'd  light, 

Hid  in  the  fringe  of  your  eyelids  white, 
And  meekly  let  your  fair  hands  joined  be, 
As  if  so  gentle  that  ye  could  not  see, 

Untouch'd,  a  victim  of  your  beauty  bright. 

Sinking  away  to  his  young  spirit's  night, 
Sinking  bewilder'd  'mid  the  dreary  sea : 
'T  is  young  Leander  toiling  to  his  death ; 

Nigh  swooning  he  doth  purse  his  weary  lips 
For  Hero's  cheek,  and  smiles  against  her  smile. 

O  horrid  dream  !  see  how  his  body  dips 
Dead-heavy  ;  arms  and  shoulders  gleam  awhile  ; 
He  's  gone  ;  up  bubbles  all  his  amorous  breath  ! 

105.  Pygmalion  and  the  Statue.^  Pygmalion  saw  so  much  to 
blame  in  women,  that  he  came  at  last  to  abhor  the  sex  and  resolved 
to  live  unmarried.  He  was  a  sculptor,  and  had  made  with  wonder- 
ful skill  a  statue  of  ivory,  so  beautiful  that  no  living  woman  was  to 
compare  with  it.  It  was  indeed  the  perfect  semblance  of  a  maiden 
that  seemed  to  be  alive  and  that  was  prevented  from  moving  only 
by  modesty.  His  art  was  so  perfect  that  it  concealed  itself,  and  its 
product  looked  like  the  workmanship  of  nature.  Pygmalion  at  last 
fell  in  love  with  his  counterfeit  creation.  Oftentimes  he  laid  his 
hand  upon  it  as  if  to  assure  himself  whether  it  were  living  or  not, 
and  could  not  even  then  believe  that  it  was  only  ivoiy. 

The  festival  of  Venus  was  at  hand,  —  a  festival  celebrated  with 
great  pomp  at  Cyprus.  Victims  were  offered,  the  altars  smoked, 
and  the  odor  of  incense  filled  the  air.  When  Pygmalion  had  per- 
formed his  part  in  the  solemnities,  he  stood  before  the  altar  and, 
according  to  one  of  our  poets,  timidly  said  : 

O  Aphrodite,  kind  and  fair. 

That  what  thou  wilt  canst  give, 
Oh,  listen  to  a  sculptor's  prayer. 

And  bid  mine  image  live  ! 
For  me  the  ivory  and  gold 

That  clothe  her  cedar  frame 

1  Sonnet,  On  a  Picture  of  Leander.  2  Ovid,  Metam.  10,  243-297. 


146  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Are  beautiful,  indeed,  but  cold ; 

Ah,  touch  them  with  thy  flame ! 
Oh,  bid  her  move  those  lips  of  rose, 

Bid  float  that  golden  hair, 
And  let  her  choose  me,  as  I  chose, 

This  fairest  of  the  fair ! 
And  then  an  altar  in  thy  court 

I  '11  offer,  decked  with  gold ; 
And  there  thy  servants  shall  resort, 

Thy  doves  be  bought  and  sold !  ^ 

According  to  another  version  of  the  story,  he  said  not,  "'  bid 
mine  image  live,"  but  ""  one  like  my  ivory  virgin."  At  any  rate, 
with  such  a  prayer  he  threw  incense  on  the  flame  of  the  altar. 
Whereupon  Venus,  as  an  omen  of  her  favor,  caused  the  flame  to 
shoot  up  thrice  a  fiery  point  into  the  air. 

When  Pygmalion  reached  his  home,  to  his  amazement  he  saw 
before  him  his  statue  garlanded  with  flowers. 

Yet  while  he  stood,  and  knew  not  what  to  do 
With  yearning,  a  strange  thrill  of  hope  there  came, 
A  shaft  of  new  desire  now  pierced  him  through. 
And  therewithal  a  soft  voice  called  his  name, 
And  when  he  turned,  with  eager  eyes  aflame, 
He  saw  betwixt  him  and  the  setting  sun 
The  lively  image  of  his  loved  one. 

He  trembled  at  the  sight,  for  though  her  eyes, 
Her  very  lips,  were  such  as  he  had  made. 
And  though  her  tresses  fell  but  in  such  guise 
As  he  had  wrought  them,  now  was  she  arrayed 
In  that  fair  garment  that  the  priests  had  laid 
Upon  the  goddess  on  that  very  morn, 
Dyed  like  the  setting  sun  upon  the  corn. 

Speechless  he  stood,  but  she  now  drew  anear, 

Simple  and  sweet  as  she  was  wont  to  be. 

And  once  again  her  silver  voice  rang  clear. 

Filling  his  soul  with  great  felicity. 

And  thus  she  spoke,  "  Wilt  thou  not  come  to  me, 

O  dear  companion  of  my  new-found  life, 

For  I  am  called  thy  lover  and  thy  wife  ?  .  .  . 

1  Andrew  Lang,  The  New  Pygmalion. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    147 

"  My  sweet,"  she  said,  "  as  yet  I  am  not  wise, 
Or  stored  with  words  aright  the  tale  to  tell, 
But  listen  :  when  I  opened  first  mine  eyes 
I  stood  within  the  niche  thou  knowest  well. 
And  from  my  hand  a  heavy  thing  there  fell 
Carved  like  these  flowers,  nor  could  I  see  things  clear, 
But  with  a  strange,  confused  noise  could  hear. 

"  At  last  mine  eyes  could  see  a  woman  fair. 
But  awful  as  this  round  white  moon  o'erhead, 
So  that  I  trembled  when  I  saw  her  there. 
For  with  my  life  was  born  some  touch  of  dread, 
And  therewithal  I  heard  her  voice  that  said, 
'  Come  down  and  learn  to  love  and  be  alive, 
For  thee,  a  well-prized  gift,  to-day  I  give.'  "  ^ 

A  fuller  account  of  Venus'  address  to  the  statue  is  the  following : 

O  maiden,  in  mine  image  made ! 

O  grace  that  shouldst  endure  ! 
While  temples  fall,  and  empires  fade. 

Immaculately  pure : 
Exchange  this  endless  life  of  art 

For  beauty  that  must  die. 
And  blossom  with  a  beating  heart 

Into  mortality  ! 
Change,  golden  tresses  of  her  hair. 

To  gold  that  turns  to  gray ; 
Change,  silent  lips,  forever  fair. 

To  lips  that  have  their  day ! 
Oh,  perfect  arms,  grow  soft  with  life, 

Wax  warm,  ere  cold  ye  wane ; 
Wake,  woman's  heart,  from  peace  to  strife. 

To  love,  to  joy,  to  pain  !  ^ 

The  maiden  was  called  Galatea.  Venus  blessed  the  nuptials,  and 
from  the  union  Paphos  was  born,  by  whose  name  the  city,  sacred 
to  Venus,  is  known. 

106.  Pyramus  and  Thisbe.^  Pyramus  was  the  handsomest  youth 
and  Thisbe  the  fairest  maiden   in   Babylonia,  where   Semiramis 

1  From  William  Morris,  Pygmalion  and  the  Image,  in  The  Earthly  Paradise. 

2  Andrew  Lang,  The  New  Pygmalion,  or  The  Statue's  Choice.  A  witty  and  not  unpoetic 
bit  of  burlesque.  3  Ovid,  Metam.  4,  55-166. 


148 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


reigned.  Their  parents  occupied  adjoining  houses.  Propinquity 
brought  the  young  people  together,  and  acquaintance  ripened  into 
love.  They  would  gladly  have  married,  but  their  parents  forbade. 
One  thing,  however,  parents  could  not  forbid  (for  Venus  and  Cupid 
favored  the  match),  —  that  love  should  glow  with  equal  ardor  in  the 
bosoms  of  both.    They  conversed  by  signs  and  glances,  and  the  fire 

burned  the  more  intensely 
that  it  was  covered.  In  the 
wall  between  the  two  houses 
there  was  a  crack,  caused  by 
some  fault  in  the  structure. 
It  afforded  a  passage  to 
the  voice ;  and  tender  mes- 
sages passed  back  and  forth 
through  the  gap.  When  night 
came  and  they  must  say 
farewell,  the  lovers  pressed 
their  lips  upon  the  wall,  she 
on  her  side,  he  on  his. 

One  morning,  when  Au- 
rora had  put  out  the  stars 
and  the  sun  had  melted  the 
frost  from  the  grass,  they 
met  at  the  accustomed  spot 
and  arranged  a  meeting  for 
that  night  at  a  well-known 
edifice,  standing  without  the 
city's  bounds,  —  the  Tomb 
of  Ninus.  The  one  who 
first  arrived  should  await  the  other  at  the  foot  of  a  white  mulberry 
tree  near  a  cool  spring.  Evening  came.  Thisbe,  arriving  first,  sat 
alone  by  the  monument  in  the  dim  light  of  the  evening.  Suddenly 
she  descried  a  lioness,  her  jaws  reeking  with  recent  slaughter, 
approaching  the  fountain  to  slake  her  thirst.  The  maiden  fled  at 
the  sight,  dropping  her  veil  as  she  ran.  The  lioness,  after  drink- 
mg  at  the  spring,  turned  toward  the  woods,  and,  seeing  the  veil  on 
the  ground,  tossed  and  rent  it  with  her  bloody  mouth. 


Fig.  80.   Thisbe 
From  the  painting  by  Edward  Bume-Jones 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    149 

Now  Pyramus  approached  the  place  of  meeting.  He  saw  in 
the  sand  the  footsteps  of  the  Hon.  He  found  the  veil  all  rent  and 
bloody,  "  O,  hapless  girl,"  cried  he,  "I  have  been  the  cause  of 
thy  death  ;  but  I  follow  thee  !  "  So  saying,  he  drew  his  sword  and 
plunged  it  into  his  heart.  The  blood  spurted  from  the  wound  and 
tinged  the  white  mulberries  of  the  tree  all  red,  and,  sinking  into 
the  earth,  reached  the  roots,  so  that  the  sanguine  hiie  mounted 
through  the  trunk  to  the  fruit. 

By  this  time  Thisbe,  still  trembling  with  fear,  yet  wishing  not 
to  disappoint  her  lover,  stepped  cautiously  forth,  looking  anxiously 
for  the  youth,  eager  to  tell  him  the  danger  she  had  escaped. 
When  she  came  to  the  spot  and  saw  the  changed  color  of  the 
mulberries,  she  doubted  whether  it  was  the  same  place.  While 
she  hesitated,  she  saw  the  form  of  her  lover  struggling  in  the 
agonies  of  death.  She  screamed  and  beat  her  breast,  she  em- 
braced the  lifeless  body,  poured  tears  into  its  wounds,  and  imprinted 
kisses  on  the  cold  lips.  "  O,  Pyramus,"  she  cried,  "  what  has  done 
this  .''  It  is  thine  own  Thisbe  that  speaks."  At  the  name  of  Thisbe 
Pyramus  opened  his  eyes,  then  closed  them  again.  She  saw  her 
veil  stained  with  blood  and  the  scabbard  empty  of  its  sword. 
"  Thine  own  hand  has  slain  thee,  and  for  my  sake,"  she  said.  "I, 
too,  can  be  brave  for  once,  and  my  love  is  as  strong  as  thine. 
But  ye,  unhappy  parents  of  us  both,  deny  us  not  our  united  re- 
quest. As  love  and  death  have  joined  us,  let  one  tomb  contain  us. 
And  thou,  tree,  retain  the  marks  of  slaughter.  Let  thy  berries 
still  serve  for  memorials  of  our  blood."  So  saying,  she  plunged 
the  sword  into  her  breast.  The  two  bodies  were  buried  in  one 
sepulcher,  and  the  tree  henceforth  produced  purple  berries. 

107.  Phaon  ferried  a  boat  between  Lesbos  and  Chios.  One  day 
the  queen  of  Paphos  and  Amathus,^  in  the  guise  of  an  ugly  crone, 
begged  a  passage,  which  was  so  good-naturedly  granted  that  in  rec- 
ompense she  bestowed  on  the  ferryman  a  salve  possessing  magical 
properties  of  youth  and  beauty.  As  a  consequence  of  the  use  made 
of  it  by  Phaon,  the  women  of  Lesbos  went  wild  for  love  of  him. 
None,  however,  admired  him  more  than  the  poetess  Sappho,  who 
addressed  to  him  some  of  her  warmest  and  rarest  love-songs. 

1  §  100,  and  Commentary. 


150  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

108.  The  Vengeance  of  Venus.  Venus  did  not  fail  to  follow 
with  her  vengeance  those  who  dishonored  her  rites  or  defied  her 
power.  The  youth  Hippolytus  who,  eschewing  love,  preferred 
Diana  to  her,  she  brought  miserably  to  his  ruin,  Polyphonte  she 
transformed  into  an  owl,  Arsinoe  into  a  stone,  and  Myrrha  into  a 
myrtle  tree,^  Her  influence  in  the  main  was  of  mingled  bane  and 
blessing,  as  in  the  cases  of  Helen,  CEnone,  Pasiphae,  Ariadne, 
Procris,  Eriphyle,  Laodamia,  and  others  whose  stories  are  else- 
where told. 2 

109.  Myths  of  Mercury.  According  to  Homer,^  Maia  bore 
Mercury  at  the  peep  of  day,  —  a  schemer  subtle  beyond  all  belief. 
He  began  playing  on  the  lyre  at  noon ;  for,  wandering  out  of  the 
lofty  cavern  of  Cyllene,  he  found  a  tortoise,  picked  it  up,  bored 
the  life  out  of  the  beast,  fitted  the  shell  with  bridge  and  reeds, 
and  accompanied  himself  therewith  as  he  sang  a  strain  of  unpre- 
meditated sweetness.  At  evening  of  the  same  day  he  stole  the 
oxen  of  his  half  brother  Apollo  from  the  Pierian  mountains,  where 
they  were  grazing.  He  covered  their  hoofs  with  tamarisk  twigs, 
and,  still  further  to  deceive  the  pursuer,  drove  them  backward  into 
a  cave  at  Pylos.  There  rubbing  laurel  branches  together,  he  made 
fire  and  sacrificed,  as  an  example  for  men  to  follow,  two  heifers 
to  the  twelve  gods  (himself  included).  Then  home  he  went  and 
slept,  innocent  as  a  new-born  child  !  To  his  mother's  warning  that 
Apollo  would  catch  and  punish  him,  this  innocent  replied,  in  effect, 
"I  know  a  trick  better  than  that  1 "  And  when  the  puzzled  Apollo, 
having  traced  the  knavery  to  this  babe  in  swaddling  clothes,  ac- 
cused him  of  it,  the  sweet  boy  swore  a  great  oath  by  his  father's 
head  that  he  stole  not  the  cows,  nor  knew  even  what  cows  might 
be,  for  he  had  only  that  moment  heard  the  name  of  them.  Apollo 
proceeded  to  trounce  the  baby,  with  scant  success,  however,  for 
Mercury  persisted  in  his  assumption  of  ignorance.  So  the  twain 
appeared  before  their  sire,  and  Apollo  entered  his  complaint :  he 
had  not  seen  nor  ever  dreamed  of  so  precocious  a  cattle-stealer, 
liar,  and  full-fledged  knave  as  this  young  rascal.  To  all  of  which 
Mercury  responded  that    he  was,   on   the    contrar)',   a  veracious 

1  Murray,  Manual  of  Mythology-,  p.  S;  ;  Ovid,  Metam.  lo,  298-502. 

2  See  Index  for  sections.  8  Hymn  to  Mercury  (Hermes). 


W'^ 


HERMES   OF  PRAXITELES 


MYTHS   OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    151 

person,  but  that  his  brother  Apollo  was  a  coward  to  bully  a  helpless 
little  new-born  thing  that  slept,  nor  ever  had  thought  of  "lifting" 
cattle.  The  wink  with  which  the  lad  of  Cyllene  accompanied  this 
asseveration  threw  Jupiter  into  uncontrollable  roars  of  laughter. 


Fig.  81.    Hermes  and  Dog 


Consequently,  the  quarrel  was  patched  up  :  Mercuiy  gave  Apollo 
the  new-made  lyre  ;  Apollo  presented  the  prodigy  with  a  glittering- 
whiplash  and  installed  him  herdsman  of  his  oxen.  Nay  even,  when 
Mercury  had  sworn  by  sacred  Styx  no  more  to  try  his  cunning  in 
theft  upon  Apollo,  that  god  in  gratitude  invested  him  with  the 
magic  wand  of  wealth,  happiness,  and  dreams  (the  caduce2is),  it 
being  understood,  however,  that  Mercury  should  indicate  the  future 
only  by  signs,  not  by  speech  or  song  as  did  Apollo.  It  is  said  that 
the  god  of  gain  avenged  himself  for  this  enforced  rectitude  upon 
others  :  upon  Venus,  whose  girdle  he  purloined  ;  upon  Neptune, 
whose  trident  he  filched  ;  upon  Vulcan,  whose  tongs  he  borrowed  ; 
and  upon  Mars,  whose  sword  he  stole. 

The  most  famous  exploit  of  the  Messenger,  the  slaughter  of 
Argus,  has  already  been  narrated. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  EARTH 

110.  Myths  of  Bacchus.   Since  the  adventures  of  Ceres,  although 

she  was  a  goddess  of  earth,  are  intimately  connected  with  the  life 

of  the  underworld,  they  will  be  related  in  the  sections  pertaining  to 

_  Proserpine  and  Pluto.   The  god  of  vernal  sap 

^r°^  and  vegetation,  of  the  gladness  that  comes  of 

"'  ^      /  youth  or  of  wine,  the  golden-curled,  sleepy- 

^  - '  eyed  Bacchus  (Dionysus),  —  his  wanderings, 

I  'A*^W  ^^'^^  ^^"^^  fortunes  of  mortals  brought  under 

|^'?\'-^  l^is   influence    (Pentheus,  Acetes,   Ariadne, 

1   \{v'     A  and  Midas),  here  challenge  our  attention. 

^4^^  111.  The  Wanderings  of  Bacchus.    After 

I  ^^     -  '^     ^^        the  death  of  Semele,^  Jove  took  the  infant 
'  '  ^  '    4^'       Bacchus  and  gave    him   in    charge  to  the 

I  "^  J,  .  ]       Nysaean  nymphs,  who  nourished  his  infancy 

'' ,       and  childhood  and  for  their  care  were  placed 
,^^^      by  Jupiter,  as  the  Hyades,  among  the  stars. 
~   ^  B  ^ ».        Another  guardian  and  tutor  of  young  Bac- 
-  "=-+  1      chus  was  the  pot-bellied,  jovial  Silenus,  son  of 


-^  Pan  and  a  nymph,  and  oldest  of  the  Satyrs. 
Fig.  82.  Silenus  tak-  Silenus  was  probably  an  indulgent  precep- 
iNG  Dionysus  to  ^^^^  p^g  ^^,^g  generally  tipsy  and  would  have 
broken  his  neck  early  in  his  career,  had  not 
the  Satyrs  held  him  on  his  ass's  back  as  he  reeled  along  in  the 
train  of  his  pupil.  After  Bacchus  was  of  age,  he  discovered  the 
culture  of  the  vine  and  the  mode  of  extracting  its  precious  juice ; 
but  Juno  struck  him  with  madness  and  drove  him  forth  a  wan- 
derer through  various  parts  of  the  earth.  In  Phrygia  the  goddess 
Rhea  cured  him  and  taught  him  her  religious  rites ;  and  then 

i§6o. 
152 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  EARTH 


15. 


he  set  out  on  a  progress  through  Asia,  teaching  the  people  the 
cultivation  of  the  vine.  The  most  famous  part  of  his  wanderings 
is  his  expedition  to 
India,  which  is  said 
to  have  lasted  several 
years.  Returning  in 
triumph,  he  undertook 
to  introduce  his  wor- 
ship into  Greece,  but 
was  opposed  by  certain 
princes  who  dreaded 
the  disorders  and  mad- 
ness it  brought  with  it. 
Finally,  he  approached 
his  native  city  Thebes, 
where  his  own  cousin, 
Pentheus,  son  of  Agave 
and  grandson  of  Har- 
monia  and  Cadmus,  was 
king.  Pentheus,  how- 
ever, had  no  respect 
for  the  new  worship  and  forbade  its  rites  to  be  performed.^  But 
when  it  was  known  that  Bacchus  was  advancing,  men  and  women, 
young  and  old,  poured  forth  to  meet  him  and  to  join  his  triumphal 

march. 

Fauns  with  youthful  Bacchus  follow  ; 

Ivy  crowns  that  brow,  supernal 
As  the  forehead  of  Apollo, 
And  possessing  youth  eternal. 

Round  about  him  fair  Bacchantes, 

Bearing  cymbals,  flutes,  and  thyrses. 
Wild  from  Naxian  groves  or  Zante's 

Vineyards,  sing  delirious  verses.^ 

It  was  in  vain  Pentheus  remonstrated,  commanded,  and  threatened. 
His  nearest  friends  and  wisest  counselors  begged  him  not  to  oppose 
the  god.    Their  remonstrances  only  made  him  the  more  violent. 

1  Ovid,  Metam.  3,  511-733.  ^  Longfellow,  Drinking  Song. 


Fig.  83.    Be.\rded  Dionysus  and  Satyr 


154 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


112.  The  Story  of  Acetes.  Soon  the  attendants  returned  who 
had  been  dispatched  to  seize  Bacchus.  They  had  succeeded  in 
taking  one  of  the  Bacchanals  prisoner,  whom,  with  his  hands  tied 
behind  him,  they  brought  before  the  king.  Pentheus,  threatening 
him  with  death,  commanded  him  to  tell  who  he  was  and  what  these 
new  rites  were  that  he  presumed  to  celebrate. 

The  prisoner,  unterrified,  replied  that  he  was  Acetes  of  Maeonia ; 
that  his  parents,  being  poor,  had  left  him  their  fisherman's  trade, 
which  he  had  followed  till  he  had  acquired  the  pilot's  art  of  steer- 
ing his  course  by  the 
stars.  It  once  hap- 
pened that  he  had 
touched  at  the  island 
of  Dia  and  had  sent 
his  men  ashore  for 
fresh  water.  They  re- 
turned, bringing  with 
them  a  lad  of  deli- 
cate appearance  whom 
they  had  found  asleep. 
Judging  him  to  be 
a  noble  youth,  they 
thought  to  detain  him 
in  the  hope  of  liberal 
ransom.  But  Acetes 
suspected  that  some  god  was  concealed  under  the  youth's  exterior, 
and  asked  pardon  for  the  violence  done.  Whereupon  the  sailors, 
enraged  by  their  lust  of  gain,  exclaimed,  '"  Spare  thy  prayers  for 
us!"  and,  in  spite  of  the  resistance  offered  by  Acetes,  thrust  the 
captive  youth  on  board  and  set  sail. 

Then  Bacchus  (for  the  youth  was  indeed  he),  as  if  shaking  off 
his  drowsiness,  asked  what  the  trouble  was  and  whither  they  were 
carrying  him.  One  of  the  mariners  replied,  "  Fear  nothing  ;  tell  us 
where  thou  wouldst  go,  and  we  will  convey  thee  thither."  "Naxos 
is  my  home,"  said  Bacchus  ;  "  take  me  there,  and  ye  shall  be  well 
rewarded."  They  promised  so  to  do  ;  but,  preventing  the  pilot  from 
steering  toward  Naxos,  they  bore  away  for  Egypt,  where  they  might 


Fig.  84.    Satyr  and  M^nau  with  Child 
Dionysus 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  EARTH    155 

sell  the  lad  into  slavety.  Soon  the  god  looked  out  over  the  sea 
and  said  in  a  voice  of  weeping,  "'  Sailors,  these  are  not  the  shores 
ye  promised  me ;  yonder  island  is  not  my  home.  It  is  small  glory 
ye  shall  gain  by  cheating  a  poor  boy."  Acetes  wept  to  hear  him, 
but  the  crew  laughed  at  both  of  them  and  sped  the  vessel  fast  over 
the  sea.  All  at  once  it  stopped  in  mid-sea,  as  fast  as  if  it  were 
fixed  on  the  ground.  The  men,  astonished,  pulled  at  their  oars 
and  spread  more  sail,  but  all  in  vain.  Ivy  twined  round  the  oars 
and  clung  to  the  sails, 
with  heavy  clusters  of 
berries.  A  vine  laden 
with  grapes  ran  up 
the  mast  and  along 
the  sides  of  the  vessel. 
The  sound  of  flutes  was 
heard,  and  the  odor  of 
fragrant  wine  spread 
all  around.  The  god 
himself  had  a  chap- 
let  of  vine  leaves  and 
bore  in  his  hand  a 
spear  wreathed  with 
ivy.  Tigers  crouched 
at  his  feet,  and  forms 
of  lynxes  and  spotted 
panthers  played  around 
him.  The  whole  crew  became  dolphins  and  swam  about  the  ship. 
Of  twenty  men  Acetes  alone  was  left.  "  Fear  not,"  said  the  god  ; 
"  steer  towards  Naxos."  The  pilot  obeyed,  and  when  they  arrived 
there,  kindled  the  altars  and  celebrated  the  sacred  rites  of  Bacchus. 

So  far  had  Acetes  advanced  in  his  narrative,  when  Pentheus, 
interrupting,  ordered  him  off  to  his  death.  But  from  this  fate  the 
pilot,  rendered  invisible  by  his  patron  deity,  was  straightway  rescued. 

Meanwhile,  the  mountain  Cithaeron  seemed  alive  with  worshipers, 
and  the  cries  of  the  Bacchanals  resounded  on  every  side.  Pentheus, 
angered  by  the  noise,  penetrated  through  the  wood  and  reached  an 
open  space  where  the  chief  scene  of  the  orgies  met  his  eyes.    At 


Fig.  85.    Dionysus  at  vSea 


156  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

the  same  moment  the  women  saw  him,  among  them  his  mother 
Agave,  and  Autonoe  and  I  no,  her  sisters.  Taking  him  for  a  wild 
boar,  they  rushed  upon  him  and  tore  him  to  pieces,  —  his  mother 
-shouting,  "  Victory  !   Victory  !  the  glory  is  ours  !  " 

So  the  worship  of  Bacchus  was  established  in  Greece. 

It  was  on  the  island  of  Naxos  that  Bacchus  afterward  found 
Ariadne,  the  daughter  of  Minos,  king  of  Crete,  who  had  been  de- 
serted by  her  lover,  Theseus.  How  Bacchus  comforted  her  is  related 
in  another  section.  How  the  god  himself  is  worshiped  is  told  by 
Edmund  Gosse  in  the  poem  from  which  the  following  extracts  are 

taken  : 

Behold,  behold  !  the  granite  gates  unclose, 
And  down  the  vales  a  lyric  people  flows  ; 
Dancing  to  music,  in  their  dance  they  fling 
Their  frantic  robes  to  every  wind  that  blows, 
And  deathless  praises  to  the  vine-god  sing. 


Fig.  86.    Bacchic  Procession 


Nearer  they  press,  and  nearer  still  in  sight. 
Still  dancing  blithely  in  a  seemly  choir ; 
Tossing  on  high  the  symbol  of  their  rite, 
The  cone-tipped  thyrsus  of  a  god's  desire ; 
Nearer  they  come,  tall  damsels  flushed  and  fair, 
With  ivy  circling  their  abundant  hair ; 
Onward,  with  even  pace,  in  stately  rows, 
With  eye  that  flashes,  and  with  cheek  that  glows. 
And  all  the  while  their  tribute-songs  they  bring. 
And  newer  glories  of  the  past  disclose, 
And  deathless  praises  to  the  vine-god  sing. 
.  .  .  But  oh !  within  the  heart  of  this  great  flight, 


MYTHS  OF  THE  GREAT  DIVINITIES  OF  EARTH    157 

Whose  ivory  arms  hold  up  the  golden  lyre  ? 
"  What  form  is  this  of  more  than  mortal  height  ? 
What  matchless  beauty,  what  inspired  ire  ! 
The  brindled  panthers  know  the  prize  they  bear, 
And  harmonize  their  steps  with  stately  care  ; 
Bent  to  the  morning,  like  a  living  rose, 
The  immortal  splendor  of  his  face  he  shows. 
And  where  he  glances,  leaf  and  flower  and  wing 
Tremble  with  rapture,  stirred  in  their  repose, 
And  deathless  praises  to  the  vine-god  sing.  .  .  } 

113.  The  Choice  of  King  Midas.'-^  Once  Silenus,  having  wan- 
dered from  the  company  of  Bacchus  in  an  intoxicated  condition, 
was  found  by  some  peasants,  who  carried  him  to  their  king,  Midas. 


Fig.  87.   Dionysus  visiting  a  Poet 

Midas  entertained  him  royally  and  on  the  eleventh  day  restored 
him  in  safety  to  his  divine  pupil.  W'hereupon  Bacchus  offered 
Midas  his  choice  of  a  reward.  The  king  asked  that  whatever  he 
might  toucli  should  be  changed  into  gold.  Bacchus  consented. 
Midas  hastened  to  put  his  new-acquired  power  to  the  test.  A 
twig  of  an  oak,  which  he  plucked  from  the  branch,  became  gold  in 

1  From  The  Praise  of  Dionysus.  2  Qvid,  Metam.  ii,  85-145. 


158  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

his  hand.  He  took  up  a  stone  ;  it  changed  to  gold.  He  touched 
a  sod  with  the  same  result.  He  took  an  apple  from  tHe  tree ;  you 
would  have  thought  he  had  robbed  the  garden  of  the  Hesperides. 
He  ordered  his  servants,  then,  to  set  an  excellent  meal  on  the 
table.  But,  to  his  dismay,  when  he  touched  bread,  it  hardened  in 
his  hand  ;  when  he  put  a  morsel  to  his  lips,  it  defied  his  teeth.  He 
took  a  glass  of  wine,  but  it  flowed  down  his  throat  like  melted  gold. 

He  strove  to  divest  himself  of  his  power ;  he  hated  the  gift  he 
had  lately  coveted.  He  raised  his  arms,  all  shining  with  gold,  in 
prayer  to  Bacchus,  begging  to  be  delivered  from  this  glittering 
destruction.  The  merciful  deity  heard  and  sent  him  to  wash  away 
his  fault  and  its  punishment  in  the  fountainhead  of  the  river 
Pactolus.  Scarce  had  Midas  touched  the  waters,  before  the  gold- 
creating  power  passed  into  them,  and  the  river  sands  became 
golden,  as  they  remain  to  this  day. 

Thenceforth  Midas,  hating  wealth  and  splendor,  dwelt  in  the 
country  and  became  a  worshiper  of  Pan,  the  god  of  the  fields. 
But  that  he  had  not  gained  common  sense  is  shown  by  the  deci- 
sion that  he  delivered  somewhat  later  in  favor  of  Pan's  superiority, 
as  a  musician,  over  Apollo.^ 

1  See  §  85.  ,      , 


Fig.  88.    Rape  of  Proserpina 


CHAPTER   IX 


FROM  THE  EARTH  TO  THE  UNDERWORLD 


114.  Myths  of  Ceres,  Pluto,  and  Proserpine.  The  search  of 
Ceres  for  Proserpine,  and  of  Orpheus  for  Eurydice,  are  stories 
pertaining  both  to  Earth  and  Hades. 

115.  The  Rape  of  Proserpine. ^  When  the  giants  were  impris- 
oned by  Jupiter  under  Mount  ^-Etna,  Pluto  (Hades)  feared  lest  the 
shock  of  their  fall  might  expose  his  kingdom  to  the  light  of  day. 
Under  this  apprehension,  he  mounted  his  chariot  drawn  by  black 
horses,  and  made  a  circuit  of  inspection  to  satisfy  himself  of  the 
extent  of  the  damage.  While  he  was  thus  engaged,  Venus,  who 
was  sitting  on  Mount  Eryx  playing  with  her  boy  Cupid,  espied 
him  and  said,  "  My  son,  take  thy  darts  which  subdue  all,  even  Jove 
himself,  and  send  one  into  the  breast  of  yonder  dark  monarch, 
who  rules  the  realm  of  Tartarus.  Dost  thou  not  see  that  even  in 
heaven  some  despise  our  power  ?  Minerva  and  Diana  defy  us  ;  and 
there  is  that  daughter  of  Ceres,  goddess  of  earth,  who  threatens  to 
follow  their  example.  Now,  if  thou  regardest  thine  own  interest 
or  mine,  join  these  two  in  one."  The  boy  selected  his  sharpest 
and  truest  arrow,  and  sped  it  right  to  the  heart  of  Pluto. 

1  Ovid,  Metam.  5,  341-347. 


l6o  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

In  the  vale  of  Enna  is  a  lake  embowered  in  woods,  where  Spring 
reigns  perpetual.  Here  Proserpine  (Persephone)  was  playing  with 
her  companions,  gathering  lilies  and  violets,  and  singing,  one  may 
imagine,  such  words  as  our  poet  Shelley  puts  into  her  mouth  : 

Sacred  Goddess,  Mother  Earth, 

Thou  from  whose  immortal  bosom, 
Gods,  and  men,  and  beasts,  have  birth, 

Leaf  and  blade,  and  bud  and  blossom. 
Breathe  thine  influence  most  divine 
On  thine  own  child,  Proserpine. 

If  with  mists  of  evening  dew 

Thou  dost  nourish  these  young  flowers 
Till  they  grow,  in  scent  and  hue, 

Fairest  children  of  the  hours. 
Breathe  thine  influence  most  divine 
On  thine  own  child,  Proserpine.^ 

Pluto  saw  her,  loved  her,  and  carried  her  off.  She  screamed  for 
help  to  her  mother  and  her  companions ;  but  the  ravisher  urged 
on  his  steeds  and  outdistanced  pursuit.  When  he  reached  the 
river  Cyane,  it  opposed  his  passage,  whereupon  he  struck  the  bank 
with  his  trident,  and  the  earth  opened  and  gave  him  a  passage  to 
Tartarus. 

116.  The  Wanderings  of  Ceres.'^  Ceres  (Demeter)  sought  her 
daughter  all  the  world  over.  Bright-haired  Aurora,  when  she  came 
forth  in  the  morning,  and  Hesperus,  when  he  led  out  the  stars  in 
the  evening,  found  her  still  busy  in  the  search.  At  length,  weary 
and  sad,  she  sat  down  upon  a  stone,  and  remained  nine  days  and 
nights  in  the  open  air,  under  the  sunlight  and  moonlight  and  fall- 
ing showers.  It  was  where  now  stands  the  city  of  Eleusis,  near  the 
home  of  an  old  man  named  Celeus.  His  little  girl,,  pitying  the  old 
woman,  said  to  her,  "'  Mother,"  —  and  the  name  was  sweet  to  the 
ears  of  Ceres,  — '"  why  sittest  thou  here  alone  upon  the  rocks  ?  " 
The  old  man  begged  her  to  come  into  his  cottage.  She  declined. 
He  urged  her.    "Go  in  peace,"  she  replied,  "  and  be  happy  in  thy 

1  Song  of  Proserpine,  while  gathering  flowers  on  the  plain  of  Enna. 

2  Ovid,  Metam.  5.  440,  642  ;  Apollodorus,  i,  5,  §  2  ;    Hyginus,  Fab.  147. 


FROM  THE  EARTH  TO  THE  UNDERWORLD        i6l 


daughter;  I  have  lost  mine."  But  their  compassion  finally  pre- 
vailed. Ceres  rose  from  the  stone  and  went  with  them.  As  they 
walked,  Celeus  said  that  his  only  son  lay  sick  of  a  fever.  The 
goddess  stooped  and  gathered  some  poppies.  Then,  entering 
the  cottage,  where  all  was  in  distress,  —  for  the  boy  Triptole- 
mus  seemed  past  recovery,  —  she  restored  the  child  to  life  and 
health  with  a  kiss.  In 
grateful  happiness  the 
family  spread  the  table 
and  put  upon  it  curds 
and  cream,  apples,  and 
honey  in  the  comb. 
While  they  ate,  Ceres 
mingled  poppy  juice 
in  the  milk  of  the  boy. 
When  night  came,  she 
arose  and,  taking  the 
sleeping  boy,  molded 
his  limbs  with  her 
hands,  and  uttered 
over  him  three  times 
a  solemn  charm,  then 
went  and  laid  him  in 
the  ashes.  His  mother, 
who  had  been  watch- 
ing what  her  guest 
was  doing,  sprang  for- 
ward with  a  cry  and 
snatched  the  child  from  the  fire.  Then  Ceres  assumed  her  own  form, 
and  a  divine  splendor  shone  all  around.  While  they  were  overcome 
with  astonishment,  she  said,  "  Mother,  thou  hast  been  cruel  in  thy 
fondness  ;  for  I  would  have  made  thy  son  immortal.  Nevertheless, 
he  shall  be  great  and  useful.  He  shall  teach  men  the  use  of  the  plow 
and  the  rewards  which  labor  can  win  from  the  soil."  So  saying,  she 
wrapped  a  cloud  about  her  and  mounting  her  chariot  rode  away. 

Ceres  continued  her  search  for  her  daughter  till  at  length  she 
returned  to  Sicily,  whence  she  first  had  set  out,  and  stood  by  the 


Hades  and  Persephone 


l62 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


banks  of  the  river  Cyane.  The  river  nymph  would  have  told  the 
goddess  all  she  had  witnessed,  but  dared  not,  for  fear  of  Pluto  ; 
so  she  ventured  merely  to  take  up  the  girdle  which  Proserpine  had 
dropped  in  her  flight,  and  float  it  to  the  feet  of  the  mother.  Ceres, 
seeing  this,  laid  her  curse  on  the  innocent  earth  in  which  her 
daughter  had  disappeared.  Then  succeeded  drought  and  famine, 
flood  and  plague,  until,  at  last,  the  fountain  Arethusa  made  inter- 


im'ig.  90.    Sacrifice  to  Demeter  and  Persephone 

cession  for  the  land.  For  she  had  seen  that  it  opened  only  unwill- 
ingly to  the  might  of  Pluto ;  and  she  had  also,  in  her  flight  from 
Alpheus  through  the  lower  regions  of  the  earth,  beheld  the  miss- 
ing Proserpine.  She  said  that  the  daughter  of  Ceres  seemed  sad, 
but  no  longer  showed  alarm  in  her  countenance.  Her  look  was 
such  as  became  a  queen,  —  the  queen  of  Erebus ;  the  powerful 
bride  of  the  monarch  of  the  realms  of  the  dead. 

When  Ceres  heard  this,  she  stood  awhile  like  one  stupefied; 
then  she  implored  Jupiter  to  interfere  to  procure  the  restitution 


FROM  THE  EARTH  TO  THE  UNDERWORLD        163 

of  her  daughter.  Jupiter  consented  on  condition  that  Proserpine 
should  not  during  her  stay  in  the  lower  world  have  taken  any  food  ; 
otherwise,  the  Fates  forbade  her  release.  Accordingly,  Mercury 
was  sent,  accompanied  by  Spring,  to  demand  Proserpine  of  Pluto. 
The  wily  monarch  consented  ;  but  alas  !  the  maiden  had  taken  a 
pomegranate  which  Pluto  offered  her,  and  had  sucked  the  sweet 
pulp  from  a  few  of  the  seeds.  A  compromise,  however,  was  effected 
by  which  she  was  to  pass  half  the  time  with  her  mother,  and  the 
rest  with  the  lord  of  Hades. 

Of  modern  poems  upon  the  storv*  of  the  maiden  seized  in  the 
vale  of  Enna,  none  conveys  a  lesson  more  serene  of  the  beauty  of 
that  dark  lover  of  all  fair  life,  Death,  than  the  Proserpine  of  Wood- 
berry,  from  which  we  quote  the  three  following  stanzas.  "  I  pick," 
says  the  poet  wandering  through  the  vale  of  Enna, 

I  pick  the  flowers  that  Proserpine  let  fall, 

Sung  through  the  world  by  every  honeyed  muse : 
Wild  morning-glories,  daisies  waving  tall, 
At  every  step  is  something  new  to  choose ; 
And  oft  I  stop  and  gaze 
Upon  the  flowery  maze  ; 
By  yonder  cypresses  on  that  soft  rise, 

Scarce  seen  through  poppies  and  the  knee-deep  wheat. 
Juts  the  dark  cleft  where  on  her  came  the  fleet 
Thunder-black  horses  and  the  cloud's  surprise 

And  he  who  filled  the  place. 
Did  marigolds  bright  as  these,  gilding  the  mist, 
Drop  from  her  maiden  zone.-*    Wert  thou  last  kissed, 
Pale  hyacinth,  last  seen,  before  his  face  ? 

Oh,  whence  has  silence  stolen  on  all  things  here. 

Where  every  sight  makes  music  to  the  eye."* 
Through  all  one  unison  is  singing  clear; 

All  sounds,  all  colors  in  one  rapture  die. 

Breathe  slow,  O  heart,  breathe  slow ! 
A  presence  from  below 
Moves  toward  the  breathing  world  from  that  dark  deep, 

Whereof  men  fabling  tell  what  no  man  knows, 

By  little  fires  amid  the  winter  snows, 
When  earth  lies  stark  in  her  titanic  sleep 


1 64  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

And  doth  with  cold  expire ; 
He  brings  thee  all,  O  Maiden  flower  of  earth, 
Her  child  in  whom  all  nature  comes  to  birth, 
Thee,  the  fruition  of  all  dark  desire. 

0  Proserpine,  dream  not  that  thou  art  gone 
Far  from  our  loves,  half-human,  half-divine ; 

Thou  hast  a  holier  adoration  won 

In  many  a  heart  that  worships  at  no  shrine. 

Where  light  and  warmth  behold  me, 
And  flower  and  wheat  infold  me, 

1  lift  a  dearer  prayer  than  all  prayers  past : 

He  who  so  loved  thee  that  the  live  earth  clove 

Before  his  pathway  unto  light  and  love. 
And  took  thy  flower-full  bosom,  —  who  at  last 

Shall  every  blossom  cull,  — 
Lover  the  most  of  what  is  most  our  own, 
The  mightiest  lover  that  the  world  has  known. 

Dark  lover.  Death,  — •  was  he  not  beautiful  ?  ^ 

117.  Triptolemus  and  the  Eleusinian  Mysteries.   Ceres,  pacified 
with  this  arrangement,  restored  the  earth  to  her  favor.    Now  she 


Fig.  91.   Triptolemus  and  the  Eleusinian  Deities 

remembered,  also,  Celeus  and  his  family,  and  her  promise  to  his 
infant  son  Triptolemus.  She  taught  the  boy  the  use  of  the  plow 
and  how  to  sow  the  seed.    She  took  him  in  her  chariot,  drawn  by 

1  From  Proserpine,  stanzas  written  by  Lake  Pergusa ;  by  George  E.  Woodberry  {Centuiy 
Magazine,  July,  1909). 


FROM  THE  EARTH  TO  THE  UNDERWORLD        165 


winged  dragons,  through  all  the  countries  of  the  earth ;  and  under 
her  guidance  he  imparted  to  mankind  valuable  grains  and  the 
knowledge  of  agriculture.  After  his  return  Triptolemus  built  a 
temple  to  Ceres  in  Eleusis  and  established  the  worship  of  the 
goddess  under  the  name  of  the  Eleusinian  mysteries,  which  in  the 
splendor  and  solem- 
nity of  their  observ- 
ance surpassed  all 
other  religious  cele- 
brations among  the 
Greeks. 

118.  Orpheus  and 
Eurydice.i  Of  mor- 
tals who  have  visited 
Hades  and  returned, 
none  has  a  sweeter  or 
sadder  history  than  Or- 
pheus, son  of  Apollo 
and  the  Muse  Calliope. 
Presented  by  his  father 
with  a  lyre  and  taught 
to  play  upon  it,  he  be- 
came the  most  famous 
of  musicians,  and  not 
only  his  fellow  mor- 
tals but  even  the  wild 
beasts  were  softened 
by  his  strains.  The 
very  trees  and  rocks 
were  sensible  to  the 


Fig.  92.  Demetkr,  Triptolemus,  and  Pkoserpina 


charm.  And  so  also  was  Eurydice,  —  whom  he  loved  and  won. 
Piymgii  was  called  to  bless  with  his  presence  the  nuptials  of 
Orpheus  with  Eurydice,  but  he  conveyed  no  happy  omens  with 
him.  His  torch  smoked  and  brought  tears  into  the  eyes.  In  keep- 
ing with  such  sad  prognostics,  Eurydice,  shortly  after  her  marriage, 
was  seen  by  the  shepherd  Aristseus,  who  was  struck  with  her  beauty 

1  Ovid,  Metam.  lo,  1-77. 


1 66 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


and  made  advances  to  her.  As  she  fled  she  trod  upon  a  snake  in 
the  grass,  and  was  bitten  in  the  foot.  She  died.  Orpheus  sang  his 
grief  to  all  who  breathed  the  upper  air,  both  gods  and  men,  and 
finding  his  complaint  of  no  avail,  resolved  to  seek  his  wife  in  the 
regions  of  the  dead.  He  descended  by  a  cave  situated  on  the  side 
of  the  promontor)'  of  Taenarus,  and  arrived  in  the  Stygian  realm. 

He  passed  through  crowds 
0  -^c'-j  ^'  c-  ^.-^i^5     of  ghosts    and   presented 

himself  before  the  throne 
of  Pluto  and  Proserpine. 
Accompanying  his  words 
with  the  lyre,  he  sang  his 
petition  for  his  wife.  With- 
out her  he  would  not  re- 
turn. In  such  tender  strains 
he  sang  that  the  very  ghosts 
shed  tears.  Tantalus,  in 
spite  of  his  thirst,  stopped 
for  a  moment  his  efforts  for 
water,  Ixion's  wheel  stood 
still,  the  vulture  ceased  to 
tear  the  giant's  liver,  the 
daughters  of  Danaiis  rested 
from  their  task  of  drawing 
water  in  a  sieve,  and  Sisy- 
phus sat  on  his  rock  to 
listen. 1  Then  for  the  first 
time,  it  is  said,  the  cheeks 


Xf 


ill 


wmfm 


Fig.  93.   Orpheus  and  Eurydice 
From  the  painting  by  Lord  Leighton 

of  the  P'uries  were  wet  with  tears.  Proserpine  could  not  resist  and 
Pluto  himself  gave  way.  Eurydice  was  called.  She  came  from  among 
the  new-arrived  ghosts,  limping  with  her  wounded  foot.  Orpheus 
was  permitted  to  take  her  away  with  him  on  condition  that  he  should 
not  turn  round  to  look  at  her  till  they  should  have  reached  the  upper 
air.  Under  this  condition  they  proceeded  on  their  way,  he  leading, 
she  following.  Mindful  of  his  promise,  without  let  or  hindrance  the 
bard  passed  through  the  horrors  of  hell.    All  Hades  held  its  breath. 

1  See  Commentar}'. 


FROM  THE  EARTH  TO  THE  UNDERWORLD 

.  .  .  On  he  stept, 
And  Cerberus  held  agape  his  triple  jaws ; 
On  stept  the  bard.    Ixion's  wheel  stood  still. 
Now,  past  all  peril,  free  was  his  return. 
And  now  was  hastening  into  upper  air 
Eurydice,  when  sudden  madness  seized 
The  incautious  lover ;  pardonable  fault, 


167 


Fig.  94.    Farewell  of  Orpheus  and  Eurydice 

If  they  below  could  pardon :  on  the  verge 
Of  light  he  stood,  and  on  Eurydice 
(Mindless  of  fate,  alas !  and  soul-subdued) 
Lookt  back. 

There,  Orpheus  !  Orpheus  !  there  was  all 
Thy  labor  shed,  there  burst  the  Dynast's  bond. 
And  thrice  arose  that  rumor  from  the  lake. 

"Ah,  what !  "  she  cried,  "  what  madness  hath  undone 
Me  !  and,  ah,  wretched  !  thee,  my  Orpheus,  too  ! 
For  lo  !  the  cruel  Fates  recall  me  now  ; 
Chill  slumbers  press  my  swimming  eyes.  .  .  .  Farewell ! 


1 68  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Night  rolls  intense  around  me  as  I  spread 

My  helpless  arms  .  .  .  thine,  thine  no  more  ...  to  thee." 

She  spake,  and,  like  a  vapor,  into  air 

Flew,  nor  beheld  him  as  he  claspt  the  void 

And  sought  to  speak  ;  in  vain  ;  the  ferry-guard 

Now  would  not  row  him  o'er  the  lake  again. 

His  wife  twice  lost,  what  could  he  ?  whither  go  ? 

What  chant,  what  wailing,  move  the  Powers  of  Hell? 

Cold  in  the  Stygian  bark  and  lone  was  she. 

Beneath  a  rock  o'er  Strymon's  flood  on  high. 
Seven  months,  seven  long-continued  months,  't  is  said, 
He  breath'd  his  sorrows  in  a  desert  cave, 
And  sooth'd  the  tiger,  moved  the  oak,  with  song.^ 

The  Thracian  maidens  tried  their  best  to  captivate  him,  but  he 
repulsed  their  advances.  Finally,  excited  by  the  rites  of  Bacchus, 
one  of  them  exclaimed,  "  See  yonder  our  despiser !  "  and  threw 
at  him  her  javelin.  The  weapon,  as  soon  as  it  came  within  the 
sound  of  his  lyre,  fell  harmless  at  his  feet ;  so  also  the  stones  thai 
they  threw  at  him.  But  the  women,  raising  a  scream,  drowned 
the  voice  of  the  music,  and  overwhelmed  him  with  their  missiles. 
Like  maniacs  they  tore  him  limb  from  limb ;  then  cast  his  head 
and  lyre  into  the  river  Hebrus,  down  which  they  floated,  murmuring 
sad  music  to  which  the  shores  responded.  The  Muses  buried 
the  fragments  of  his  body  at  Libethra,  where  the  nightingale  is 
said  to  sing  over  his  grave  more  sweetly  than  in  any  other  part  of 
Greece.  His  lyre  was  placed  by  Jupiter  among  the  stars  ;  but  the 
shade  of  the  bard  passed  a  second  time  to  Tartarus  and  rejoined 
Eurydice. 

Other  mortals  who  visited  the  Stygian  realm  and  returned  were 
Hercules,  Theseus,  Ulysses,  and  yEneas.^ 

1  From  \V.  S,  Lander's  Orpheus  and  Eurydice  in  Dry  Sticks.  2  gee  Index. 


CHAPTER  X 


MYTHS  OF  NEPTUNE,  RULER  OF  THE  WATERS 


119.  Lord  of  the  Sea.  Neptune  (Poseidon)  was  lord  both  of  salt 
waters  and  of  fresh.  The  myths  that  turn  on  his  life  as  lord  of  the 
sea  illustrate  his  defiant  invasions 
of  lands  belonging  to  other  gods,  or 
his  character  as  earth  shaker  and 
earth  protector.  Of  his  contests 
with  other  gods,  that  with  Minerva 
for  Athens  has  been  related.  He 
contested  Corinth  with  Helios, 
Argos  with  Juno,  yEgina  with 
Jove,  Naxos  with  Bacchus,  and 
Delphi  with  Apollo.  That  he  did 
not  always  make  encroachments 
in  person  upon  the  land  that  he 
desired  to  possess  or  to  punish, 
but  sent  some  monster  instead, 
will  be  seen  in  the  myth  of  An- 
dromeda^ and  in  the  following 
story  of  Hesione,^  the  daughter  of 
Laomedon  of  Troy. 

Neptune  and  Apollo  had  fallen 
under  the  displeasure  of  Jupiter 
after  the  overthrow  of  the  giants. 
They  were  compelled,  it  is  said, 
to  resign  for  a  season  their  respective  functions  and  to  serve 
Laomedon,  then  about  to  build  the  city  of  Troy.  They  aided  the 
king  in  erecting  the  walls  of  the  city  but  were  refused  the  wages 
agreed  upon.    Justly  offended,  Neptune  ravaged  the  land  by  floods 


Fig.  95.    Poseidon 


154. 


2  Iliad,  5,  649 ;  ApoUodorus,  3,  12,  §  7, 
169 


170  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

and  sent  against  it  a  sea  monster,  to  satiate  the  appetite  of  which 
the  desperate  Laomedon  was  driven  to  offer  his  daughter  Hesione. 
But  Hercules  appeared  upon  the  scene,  killed  the  monster,  and 
rescued  the  maiden.  Neptune,  however,  nursed  his  wrath  ;  and  it 
was  still  warm  when  the  Greeks  marched  against  Troy, 

Of  a  like  impetuous  and  ungovernable  temper  were  the  sons  of 
Neptune  by  mortal  mothers.  From  him  were  sprung  the  savage 
Laestrygonians,  Orion,  the  Cyclops  Polyphemus,  the  giant  Antaeus 
whom  Hercules  slew,  Procrustes,  and  many  another  redoubtable 
being  whose  fortunes  are  elsewhere  recounted.^ 

120.  Lord  of  Streams  and  Fountains.  As  earth  shaker,  the  ruler 
of  the  deep  was  known  to  effect  convulsions  of  nature  that  made 
Pluto  leap  from  his  throne  lest  the  firmament  of  the  underworld 
might  be  falling  about  his  ears.  But  as  god  of  the  streams  and  foun- 
tains, Neptune  displayed  milder  characteristics.  When  Amymone, 
sent  by  her  father  Danaiis  to  draw  water,  was  pursued  by  a  satyr, 
Neptune  gave  ear  to  her  cry  for  help,  dispatched  the  satyr,  made 
love  to  the  maiden,  and  boring  the  earth  with  his  trident  called 
forth  the  spring  that  still  bears  the  Danai'd's  name.  He  loved  the 
goddess  Ceres  also,  through  whose  pastures  his  rivers  strayed  ;  and 
Arne  the  shepherdess,  daughter  of  King  .^olus,  by  whom  he- 
became  the  forefather  of  the  Boeotians.  His  children,  Pelias  and 
Neleus,  by  the  princess  Tyro,  whom  he  wooed  in  the  form  of  her 
lover  Enipeus,  became  keepers  of  horses  —  animals  especially  dear 
to  Neptune.  Perhaps  it  was  the  similarity  of  horse-taming  to  wave- 
taming  that  attracted  the  god  to  these  quadrupeds ;  perhaps  it  was 
because  they  increased  in  beauty  and  speed  on  the  pastures  watered 
by  his  streams.  It  is  said,  indeed,  that  the  first  and  fleetest  of 
horses,  Arion,  was  the  offspring  of  Neptune  and  Ceres,  or  of  Nep- 
tune and  a  Fury. 

121.  Pelops  and  Hippodamia.'-^  To  Pelops,  brother  of  Niobe, 
Neptune  imparted  skill  in  training  and  driving  horses, — and  with 
good  effect.  For  it  happened  that  Pelops  fell  in  love  with  Hippo- 
damia,  daughter  of  CEnomaus,  king  of  Elis  and  son  of  Mars,  —  a 
girl  of  whom  it  was  reported  that  none  could  win  her  save  by 
worsting  the  father  in  a  chariot  race,  and  that  none  might  fail  in 

1  Sec  Index.  2  Hyginus,  Fab.  S4,  253  ;  Pindar,  Olymp.  i,  114. 


MYTHS  OF  NEPTUNE,  RULER  OF  THE  WATERS     171 

that  race  and  come  off  alive.  Since. an  oracle,  too,  had  warned 
CEnomaiis  to  beware  of  the  future  husband  of  his  daughter,  he  had 
provided  himself  with  horses  whose  speed  was  like  the  cyclone. 
But  Pelops,  obtaining  from  Neptune  winged  steeds,  entered  the 
race  and  won  it,  —  whether  by  the  speed  of  his  horses  or  by  the 
aid  of  Hippodamia,  who,  it  is  said,  bribed  her  father's  charioteer, 
Myrtilus,  to  take  a  bolt  out  of  the  chariot  of  QEnomaiis,  is  uncer- 
tain. At  any  rate,  Pelops  married  Hippodamia.  He  was  so  injudi- 
cious, however,  as  to  throw  Myrtilus  into  the  sea ;  and  from  that 
treachery  sprang  the  misfortunes  of  the  house  of  Pelops.  For 
Myrtilus,  dying,  cursed  the  murderer  and  his  race. 


Fig.  96.   Peloids  winning  the  Race,  Hippodamia  looking  on 


CHAPTER  XI 

MYTHS  OF  THE  LESSER  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN 

122.  Myths  of  Stars  and  Winds.  The  tales  of  Stars  and  Winds 
and  the  other  lesser  powers  of  the  celestial  regions  are  closely  inter- 
woven. That  the  winds  which  sweep  heaven  should  kiss  the  stars 
is  easy  to  understand.  The  stories  of  Aurora  (Eos)  and  of  Aura,  of 
Phosphor  and  of  Halcyone,  form,  therefore,  a  ready  sequence. 


Fig.  97.    Phosphor,  Eos,  and  Helios  (the  Sun)  rising  from  the  Sea 

123.  Cephalus  and  Procris.^  Aurora,  the  goddess  of  the  dawn, 
fell  in  love  with  Cephalus,  a  young  huntsman.  She  stole  him  away, 
lavished  her  love  upon  him,  tried  to  content  him,  but  in  vain.  He 
cared  for  his  young  wife  Procris  more  than  for  the  goddess.  Plnally, 
Aurora  dismissed  him  in  displeasure,  saying,  "Go,  ungrateful  mor- 
tal, keep  thy  wife ;  but  thou  shalt  one  day  be  sorry  that  thou  didst 
ever  see  her  again." 

Cephalus  returned  and  was  as  happy  as  before  in  his  wife.  She, 
being  a  favorite  of  Diana,  had  received  from  her  for  the  chase  a 
dog  and  a  javelin,  which  she  handed  over  to  her  husband.  Of 
the  dog  it  is  told  that  when  about  to  catch  the  swiftest  fox  in 

1  Ovid,  Metam.  7,  394  et  seq. 
172 


MYTHS  OF  THE  LESSER  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    173 

the  country,  he  was  changed  with  his  victim  into  stone.  For  the 
heavenly  powers,  who  had  made  both  and  rejoiced  in  the  speed 
of  both,  were  not  wilhng  that  either  should  conquer.  The  javelin 
was  destined  to  a  sad  office.  It  appears  that  Cephalus,  when 
weary  of  the  chase,  was  wont  to  stretch  himself  in  a  certain  shady 
nook  to  enjoy  the  breeze.  Sometimes  he  would  say  aloud,  "Come, 
gentle  Aura,  sweet  goddess  of  the  breeze,  come  and  allay  the  heat 
that  burns  me."  Some  one,  foolishly  believing  that  he  addressed 
a  maiden,  told  the  secret  to  Procris.  Hoping  against  hope,  she 
stole  out  after  him  the  next  morning  and  concealed  herself  in  the 


^  MM!,  I 


C 


Fig.  98.    Sun,  rising,  preceded  by  Dawn 
From  the  painting  by  Guido  Reni 

place  which  the  informer  had  indicated.  Cephalus,  when  tired  with 
sport,  stretched  himself  on  the  green  bank  and  summoned  fair 
Aura  as  usual.  Suddenly  he  heard,  or  thought  he  heard,  a  sound  as 
of  a  sob  in  the  bushes.  Supposing  it  to  proceed  from  some  wild 
animal,  he  threw  his  javelin  at  the  spot.  A  cr\-  told  him  that  the 
weapon  had  too  surely  met  its  mark.  He  rushed  to  the  place 
and  raised  his  wounded  Procris  from  the  earth.  She,  at  last, 
opened  her  feeble  eyes  and  forced  herself  to  utter  these  words  : 
"  I  implore  thee,  if  thou  hast  ever  loved  me,  if  I  have  ever  de- 
served kindness  at  thy  hands,  my  husband,  grant  me  this  last 
request ;  marry  not  that  odious  Breeze  !  "  So  saying,  she  expired 
in  her  lover's  arms. 


174 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


124.  Dobson's  The  Death  of 
Procris.  A  different  version  of 
the  story  is  given  in  the  following  : 

Procris,     the    nymph,     had     wedded 
Cephalus ;  — 
He,  till  the  spring  had  warmed  to 
slow-winged  days 
Heavy  with  June,  untired  and  amorous, 
Named  her  his  love ;    but  now,  in 
unknown  ways, 
His  heart  was   gone ;  and   evermore 
his  gaze 
Turned  from  her    own,    and    even 
farther  ranged 
His  woodland  war ;  while  she,  in  dull 
amaze. 
Beholding  with  the  hours  her  hus- 
band changed. 
Sighed  for  his  lost  caress,  by  some 
hard  god  estranged. 

So,  on  a  day,  she  rose  and  found  him  not. 
Alone,  with  wet,  sad  eye,  she  watched 
the  shade 
Brighten  below  a  soft-rayed  sun  that  shot 
Arrows  of  light  through  all  the  deep- 
leaved  glade ; 
Then,  with'  weak  hands,  she  knotted 
up  the  braid 
Of  her  brown   hair,    and    o'er    her 
shoulders  cast 
Her  crimson  weed  ;  with  faltering  fin- 
gers made 
Her  golden   girdle's   clasp  to  join, 

and  past 
Down  to  the  trackless  wood,  full  pale 
and  overcast. 

And    all    day    long    her    slight    spear 
devious  flew, 
And  harmless  swerved   her  arrows 
from  their  aim. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  LESSER  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    175 

For  ever,  as  the  ivory  bow  she  drew, 

Before  her  ran  the  still  unwounded  game. 
Then,  at  the  last,  a  hunter's  cry  there  came, 

And,  lo !  a  hart  that  panted  with  the  chase. 
Thereat  her  cheek  was  lightened  as  with  flame. 

And  swift  she  gat  her  to  a  leafy  place, 

Thinking,  "  I  yet  may  chance  unseen  to  see  his  face." 

Leaping  he  went,  this  hunter  Cephalus, 

Bent  in  his  hand  his  cornel  bow  he  bare, 
Supple  he  was,  round-limbed  and  vigorous, 

Fleet  as  his  dogs,  a  lean  Laconian  pair. 
He,  when  he  spied  the  brown  of  Procris'  hair 

Move  in  the  covert,  deeming  that  apart 
Some  fawn  lay  hidden,  loosed  an  arrow  there ; 

Nor  cared  to  turn  and  seek  the  speeded  dart. 

Bounding  above  the  fern,  fast  following  up  the  hart. 

But  Procris  lay  among  the  white  wind-flowers. 
Shot  in  the  throat.    From  out  the  little  wound 

The  slow  blood  drained,  as  drops  in  autumn  showers 
Drip  from  the  leaves  upon  the  sodden  ground. 

None  saw  her  die  but  Lelaps,  the  swift  hound. 
That  watched  her  dumbly  with  a  wistful  fear. 

Till,  at  the  dawn,  the  horned  wood-men  found 
And  bore  her  gently  on  a  sylvan  bier. 
To  lie  beside  the  sea,  —  with  many  an  uncouth  tear. 

125.  Ceyx  and  Halcyone.  The  son  of  Aurora  and  Cephalus  was 
Phosphor,  the  Star  of  Morning,  His  son  Ceyx,  king  of  Trachis  in 
Thessaly,  had  married  Halcyone,  daughter  of  ^olus.^  Their  reign 
was  happy  until  the  brother  of  Ceyx  met  his  death.  The  direful 
prodigies  that  followed  this  event  made  Ceyx  feel  that  the  gods 
were  hostile  to  him.  He  thought  best  therefore  to  make  a  voyage 
to  Claros  in  Ionia  to  consult  the  oracle  of  Apollo.  In  spite  of  his 
wife's  entreaties  (for  as  daughter  of  the  god  of  winds  she  knew 
how  dreadful  a  thing  a  storm  at  sea  was),  Ceyx  set  sail.  He  was 
shipwrecked  and  drowned.  His  last  prayer  was  that  the  waves 
might  bear  his  body  to  the  sight  of  Halcyone,  and  that  it  might 
receive  burial  at  her  hands. 

1  Ovid,  Metam.  ii,  583-748. 


176 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


In  the  meanwhile,  Halcyone  counted  the  days  till  her  husband's 
promised  return.  To  all  the  gods  she  offered  frequent  incense,  but 
more  than  all  to  Juno.  The  goddess,  at  last,  could  not  bear  to  be 
further  pleaded  with  for  one  already  dead.  Calling  Iris,  she  enjoined 
her  to  approach  the  drowsy  dwelling  of  Somnus  and  bid  him  send 
a  vision  to  Halcyone  in  the  form  of  Ceyx,  to  reveal  the  sad  event. 

Iris  puts  on  her  robe  of  many 
colors,  and  tinging  the  sky  with  her 
bow,  seeks  the  cave  near  the  Cim- 
merian country,  which  is  the  abode 
of  the  dull  god,  Somnus.  Here 
Phoebus  dare  not  come.  Clouds 
and  shadows  are  exhaled  from  the 
ground,  and  the  light  glimmers 
faintly.  The  cock  never  there  calls 
aloud  to  Aurora,  nor  watchdog  nor 
goose  disturbs  the  silence.  No  wild 
beast,  nor  cattle,  nor  branch  moved 
with  the  wind,  nor  sound  of  human 
conversation  breaks  the  stillness. 
From  the  bottom  of  the  rock  the 
river  Lethe  flows,  and  by  its  murmur 
invites  to  sleep.  Poppies  grow  before 
the  door  of  the  cave,  from  whose 
juices  Night  distills  slumbers  which 
she  scatters  over  the  darkened  earth. 
There  is  no  gate  to  creak  on  its 
hinges,  nor  any  watchman.  In  the 
midst,  on  a  couch  of  black  ebony  adorned  with  black  plumes  and 
black  curtains  the  god  reclines,  his  limbs  relaxed  in  sleep.  Around 
him  lie  dreams,  resembling  all  various  forms,  as  many  as  the  har- 
vest bears  stalks,  or  the  forest  leaves,  or  the  seashore  sand  grains. 
Brushing  away  the  dreams  that  hovered  around  her.  Iris  lit  up 
the  cave  and  delivered  her  message  to  the  god,  who,  scarce  opening 
his  eyes,  had  great  difificulty  in  shaking  himself  free  from  himself. 
Then  Iris  hasted  away  from  the  drowsiness  creeping  over  her, 
and  returned  bv  her  bow  as  she  had  come.    But  Somnus  called 


Fig.  100.    The  God  of  Sleep 


MYTHS  OF  THE  LESSER  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    177 

one  of  his  sons,  Morpheus,  the  most  expert  in  counterfeiting  forms 
of  men,  to  perform  the  command  of  Iris ;  then  laid  his  head  on 
his  pillow  and  yielded  himself  again  to  grateful  repose. 

Morpheus  flew  on  silent  wings  to  the  Haemonian  city,  where  he 
assumed  the  form  of  Ceyx.  Pale  like  a  dead  man,  naked  and  drip- 
ping, he  stood  before  the  couch  of  the  wretched  wife  and  told  her 
that  the  winds  of  the  ^gean  had  sunk  his  ship,  that  he  was  dead. 

Weeping  and  groaning,  Halcyone  sprang  from  sleep  and,  with 
the  dawn,  hastening  to  the  seashore,  descried  an  indistinct  object 
washed  to  and  fro  by  the  waves.  As  it  floated  nearer  she  recog- 
nized the  body  of  her  husband.  In  despair,  leaping  from  the  mole, 
she  was  changed  instantly  to  a  bird,  and  poured  forth  a  song  of 
grief  as  she  flew.  By  the  mercy  of  the  gods  Ceyx  was  likewise 
transformed.  For  seven  days  before  and  seven  days  after  the  win- 
ter solstice,  Jove  forbids  the  winds  to  blow.  Then  Halcyon  broods 
over  her  nest ;  then  the  way  is  safe  to  seafarers.  yEolus  confines 
the  winds  that  his  grandchildren  may  have  peace. 

126.  Aurora  and  Tithonus.^  Aurora  seems  frequently  to  have 
been  inspired  with  the  love  of  mortals.  Her  greatest  favorite,  and 
almost  her  latest,  was  Tithonus,  son  of  Laomedon,  king  of  Troy. 
She  stole  him  away  and  prevailed  on  Jupiter  to  grant  him  immortal- 
ity ;  but  forgetting  to  have  youth  joined  in  the  gift,  after  some  time 
she  began  to  discern,  to  her  great  mortification,  that  he  was  grow- 
ing old.  When  his  hair  was  white  she  left  his  society  ;  but  he  still 
had  the  range  of  her  palace,  lived  on  ambrosial  food,  and  was  clad 
in  celestial  raiment.  In  time  he  lost  the  power  of  using  his  limbs  ; 
and  then  she  shut  him  up  in  his  chamber,  whence  his  feeble  voice 
might  at  times  be  heard.  Finally,  she  turned  him  into  a  grasshopper. 

127.  Tennyson's  Tithonus.  The  following  is,  according  to  a  fine 
poetic  conception,  the  lament  of  the  old  man  when  but  a  white- 
haired  shadow  : 

The  woods  decay,  the  woods  decay  and  fall, 
.   ■  The  vapors  weep  their  burthen  to  the  ground, 

"-'  Man  comes  and  tills  the  field  and  lies  beneath, 

And  after  many  a  summer  dies  the  swan. 
Me  only  cruel  immortality 

1  Homeric  Hymn  to  Venus ;  Horace,  Odes,  i,  22  ;  2,  16  ;  Apollodorus, 3,  12,  §  4. 


I  78  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Consumes :   I  wither  slowly  in  thine  arms, 
Here  at  the  quiet  limit  of  the  world, 
A  white-haired  shadow  roaming  like  a  dream 
The  ever  silent  spaces  of  the  East, 
Far-folded  mists,  and  gleaming  halls  of  morn. 

Alas  !  for  this  gray  shadow,  once  a  man  — 
So  glorious  in  his  beauty  and  thy  choice, 
Who  madest  him  thy  chosen,  that  he  seem'd 
To  his  great  heart  none  other  than  a  God ! 
I  ask'd  thee,  "  Give  me  immortality." 
Then  didst  thou  grant  mine  asking  with  a  smile. 
Like  wealthy  men  who  care  not  how  they  give  ; 
But  thy  strong  Hours  indignant  work'd  their  wills, 
And  beat  me  down  and  marr'd  and  wasted  me. 
And  tho'  they  could  not  end  me,  left  me  maim'd 
To  dwell  in  presence  of  immortal  youth, 
Immortal  age  beside  immortal  youth, 
And  all  I  was,  in  ashes.    Can  thy  love. 
Thy  beauty,  make  amends,  tho'  even  now. 
Close  over  us,  the  silver  star,  thy  guide. 
Shines  in  those  tremulous  eyes  that  fill  with  tears 
To  hear  me  .'*    Let  me  go :  take  back  thy  gift : 
Why  should  a  man  desire  in  any  way 
To  vary  from  the  kindly  race  of  men, 
Or  pass  beyond  the  goal  of  ordinance 
Where  all  should  pause,  as  is  most  meet  for  all  ? 

A  soft  air  fans  the  cloud  apart ;  there  comes 
A  glimpse  of  that  dark  world  where  I  was  born. 
Once  more  the  old  mysterious  glimmer  steals 
From  thy  pure  brows,  and  from  thy  shoulders  pure^ 
And  bosom  beating  with  a  heart  renew'd. 
Thy  cheek  begins  to  redden  thro'  the  gloom, 
Thy  sweet  eyes  brighten  slowly  close  to  mine. 
Ere  yet  they  blind  the  stars,  and  the  wild  team 
Which  love  thee,  yearning  for  thy  yoke,  arise, 
And  shake  the  darkness  from  their  loosen'd  manes, 
And  beat  the  twilight  into  flakes  of  fire. 

Lo !  ever  thus  thou  growest  beautiful 
In  silence,  then  before  thine  answer  given 
Departest,  and  thy  tears  are  on  my  cheek. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  LESSER  DIVINITIES  OF  HEAVEN    179 

Why  wilt  thou  ever  scare  me  with  thy  tears, 
And  make  me  tremble  lest  a  saying  learnt 
In  days  far-off,  on  that  dark  earth,  be  true? 
"  The  gods  themselves  cannot  recall  their  gifts." 

Ay  me  !  ay  me  !  with  what  another  heart 
In  days  far-off,  and  with  what  other  eyes 
I  used  to  watch  —  if  I  be  he  that  watched  — 
The  lucid  outline  forming  round  thee ;  saw 
The  dim  curls  kindle  into  sunny  rings ; 
Changed  with  thy  mystic  change,  and  felt  my  blood 
Glow  with  the  glow  that  slowly  crimson'd  all 
Thy  presence  and  thy  portals,  while  I  lay, 
Mouth,  forehead,  eyelids,  growing  dewy-warm 
With  kisses  balmier  than  half-opening  buds 
Of  April,  and  could  hear  the  lips  that  kiss'd 
W'hispering  I  knew  not  what  of  wild  and  sweet, 
Like  that  strange  song  I  heard  Apollo  sing. 
While  Ilion  like  a  mist  rose  into  towers. 

Yet  hold  me  not  forever  in  thine  East : 
How  can  my  nature  longer  mix  with  thine? 
Coldly  thy  rosy  shadows  bathe  me,  cold 
Are  all  thy  lights,  and  cold  my  wrinkled  feet 
Upon  thy  glimmering  thresholds,  when  the  steam 
Floats  up  from  those  dim  fields  about  the  homes 
Of  happy  men  that  have  the  power  to  die, 
And  grassy  barrows  of  the  happier  dead. 
Release  me,  and  restore  me  to  the  ground ; 
Thou  seest  all  things,  thou  wilt  see  my  grave : 
Thou  wilt  renew  thy  beauty  morn  by  morn ; 
I  earth  in  earth  forget  these  empty  courts, 
And  thee  returning  on  thy  silver  wheels. 

128.  Memnon,  the  son  of  Aurora  and  Tithonus,  was  king  of  the 
.Ethiopians.  He  went  with  warriors  to  assist  his  kindred  in  the 
Trojan  War,  and  was  received  by  King  Priam  with  honor.  He 
fought  bravely,  slew  Antilochus,  the  brave  son  of  Nestor,  and  held 
the  Greeks  at  bay  until  Achilles  appeared.    Before  that  hero  he  fell. 

Then  Aurora,  seeing  her  son's  fate,  directed  his  brothers,  the 
Winds,  to  convey  his  body  to  the  banks  of  the  river  /Esepus  in 
Mysia,    In  the  evening  Aurora,  accompanied  by  the  Hours  and 


i8o 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


the  Pleiads,  bewept  her  son.  Night  spread  the  heaven  with  clouds  ; 
all  nature  mourned  for  the  offspring  of  the  Dawn.  The  yEthi- 
opians  raised  his  tomb  on  the  banks  of  the  stream  in  the  grove  of 

the  Nymphs,  and  Jupiter 
caused  the  sparks  and 
cinders  of  his  funeral  pile 
to  be  turned  into  birds, 
which,  dividing  into  two 
flocks,  fought  over  the 
pile  till  they  fell  into  the 
flame.  Every  year  at 
the  anniversary  of  his 
death  they  celebrated  his 
obsequies  in  like  manner. 
Aurora  remained  incon- 
solable. The  dewdrops 
are  her  tears. ^ 

The  kinship  of  Mem- 
non  to  the  Dawn  is  certi- 
fied even  after  his  death. 
On  the  banks  of  the  Nile  are  two  colossal  statues,  one  of  which 
is  called  Memnon's  ;  and  it  was  said  that  when  the  first  rays  of 
morning  fell  upon  this  statue,  a  sound  like  the  snapping  of  a  harp- 
string  issued  therefrom.'^ 

'  So  to  the  sacred  Sun  in  Memnon's  fane 
Spontaneous  concords  choired  the  matin  strain ; 
Touched  by  his  orient  beam  responsive  rings 
The  living  lyre  and  vibrates  all  its  strings ; 
Accordant  aisles  the  tender  tones  prolong, 
And  holy  echoes  swell  the  adoring  song.* 


Fig.  ioi.   The  Death  ok  Memnon 


1  Ovid,  Metam.  13,  622,  etc.     Odyssey,  4,  188  ;  11,  522.     Pindar,  Pyth.  6,  30. 

2  Pausanias,  i,  42,  §  2.  3  Darwin,  Botanic  Garden. 


CHAPTER   XII 

MYTHS  OF  THE  LESSER  DIVINITIES  OF  EARTH,   FTC. 

129.  Pan,  and  the  Personification  of  Nature.  It  was  a  pleasing 
trait  in  the  old  paganism  that  it  loved  to  trace  in  every  operation  of 
nature  the  agency  of  deity.  The  imagination  of  the  Greeks  peopled 
the  regions  of  earth  and  sea  with  divinities,  to  whose  agency  it 
attributed  the  phenomena  that  our  philosophy  ascribes  to  the  opera- 
tion of  natural  law.  So  Pan,  the  god  of  woods  and  fields,^  whose 
name  seemed  to  signify  all,  came  to  be  considered  a  symbol  of 
the  universe  and  a  personification  of  Nature.  "Universal  Pan," 
says  Milton  in  his  description  of  the  creation  : 

Universal  Pan, 
Knit  with  the  Graces  and  the  Hours  in  dance, 
Led  on  the  eternal  Spring. 

Later,  Pan  came  to  be  regarded  as  a  representative  of  all  the 
Greek  gods  and  of  paganism  itself.  Indeed,  according  to  an  early 
Christian  tradition,  when  the  heavenly  host  announced  to  the  shep- 
herds the  birth  of  Christ,  a  deep  groan,  heard  through  the  isles  of 
Greece,  told  that  great  Pan  was  dead,  that  the  dynasty  of  Olympus 
was  dethroned,  and  the  several  deities  sent  wandering  in  cold  and 
darkness. 

The  lonely  mountains  o'er, 
And  the  resounding  shore, 

A  voice  of  weeping  heard  and  loud  lament ; 
From  haunted  spring  and  dale, 
Edged  with  poplar  pale, 

The  parting  Genius  is  with  sighing  sent; 
With  flower-inwoven  tresses  torn, 
The  nymphs  in  twilight  shade  of  tangled  thickets  mourn. ^ 

1  His  name  is  not  derived  from  the  Greek  /««,  all,  but  from  the  root  /><?,  to  feed,  to 
pasture  (i.e.  the  flocks  and  herds).  2  Milton,  Hymn  on  the  Nativity. 

181 


l82 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Many  a  poet  has  lamented  the  change.  For  even  if  the  head 
did  profit  for  a  time  by  the  revolt  against  the  divine  preroga- 
tive of  nature,  it  is  more  than  possible  that  the  heart  lost  in  due 
proportion. 

His  sorrow  at  this  loss  of  imaginative  sympathy  among  the 
moderns  Wordsworth  expresses  in  the  sonnet,  already  cited,  be- 
ginning "The  world  is  too  much  with  us."  Schiller,  also,  by  his 
poem,  The  Gods  of  Greece,  has  immortalized  his  sorrow  for  the 
decadence  of  the  ancient  mytholog}-. 


Ah,  the  beauteous  world  while  yet  ye  ruled  it,  - 

Yet  —  by  gladsome  touches  of  the  hand  ; 
Ah,  the  joyous  hearts  that  still  ye  governed, 

Gods  of  Beauty,  ye,  of  Fable-land  ! 
Then,  ah,  then,  the  mysteries  resplendent 

Triumphed.  —  Other  was  it  then,  I  ween, 
When  thy  shrines  were  odorous  with  garlands, 

Thou,  of  Amathus  the  queen. 

Then  the  gracious  veil,  of  fancy  woven. 

Fell  in  folds  about  the  fact  uncouth  ; 
Through  the  universe  life  flowed  in  fullness, 

What  we  feel  not  now  was  felt  in  sooth  : 
Man  ascribed  nobility  to  Nature, 

Rendered  love  unto  the  earth  he  trod. 
Everywhere  his  eye,  illuminated, 

Saw  the  footprints  of  a  God. 


Fig. 


I02.     P.-VN    BLOWING 

HIS  Pipe,  Echo 

ANSWERING 


Lovely  world,  where  art  thou.?    Turn,  oh,  turn  thee. 

Fairest  blossom-tide  of  Nature's  spring ! 
Only  in  the  poet's  realm  of  wonder 

Liv'st  thou,  still,  —  a  fable  vanishing. 
Reft  of  life  the  meadows  lie  deserted  ; 

Ne'er  a  godhead  can  my  fancy  see : 
Ah,  if  only  of  those  living  colors 

Lingered  vet  the  ghost  with  me !  ^ 


It   was  the    poem    from  which    these    stanzas   are    taken   that 
provoked  the  well-known  reply  of   Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning, 

1  Translated  by  C.  M.  Gay  ley 


LESSER  DIVINITIES  OF  EARTH,  ETC.  183 

contained  in  The  Dead  Pan.     Her  argument    may  be  gathered 
from  the  following  stanzas  : 

By  your  beauty  which  confesses 
Some  chief  Beauty  conquering  you, 
By  our  grand  heroic  guesses 
Through  your  falsehood  at  the  True, 
We  will  weep  not!  earth  shall  roll 
Heir  to  each  god's  aureole, 

And  Pan  is  dead. 

Earth  outgrows  the  mythic  fancies 
Sung  beside  her  in  her  youth  ; 
And  those  debonair  romances 
Sound  but  dull  beside  the  truth. 
Phoebus'  chariot  course  is  run  ! 
Look  up,  poets,  to  the  sun  ! 

Pan,  Pan  is  dead. 

130.  Stedman's  Pan  in  Wall  Street. ^  That  Pan,  however,  is  not 
yet  dead  but  alive  even  in  the  practical  atmosphere  of  our  western 
world,  the  poem  here  appended,  written  by  one  of  our  recently 
deceased  American  poets,  would  indicate. 

Just  where  the  Treasury's  maible  front 

Looks  over  Wall  Street's  mingled  nations; 
Where  Jews  and  Gentiles  most  are  wont 

To  throng  for  trade  and  last  quotations ; 
Where,  hour  by  hour,  the  rates  of  gold 

Outrival,  in  the  ears  of  people, 
The  quarter  chimes,  serenely  tolled 

From  Trinity's  undaunted  steeple,  — 

Even  there  I  heard  a  strange,  wild  strain 

Sound  high  above  the  modern  clamor. 
Above  the  cries  of  greed  and  gain, 

The  curbstone  war,  the  auction's  hammer ; 
And  swift,  on  Music's  misty  ways, 

It  led,  from  all  this  strife  for  millions, 
To  ancient,  sweet-do-nothing  days 

Among  the  kirtle-robed  Sicilians. 

1  By  Edmund  Clarence  Stedman. 


Fig.  103.    The  Music  Lesson 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

And  as  it  still'd  the  multitude, 

And  yet  more  joyous  rose,  and  shriller, 
I  saw  the  minstrel  where  he  stood 

At  ease  against  a  Doric  pillar : 
One  hand  a  droning  organ  play'd, 

The  other  held  a  Pan's  pipe  (fashioned 
Like  those  of  old)  to  lips  that  made 

The  reeds  give  out  that  strain  impassioned. 

'T  was  Pan  himself  had  wandered  here, 

A-strolling  through  the  sordid  city, 
And  piping  to  the  civic  ear 

The  prelude  of  some  pastoral  ditty  ! 
The  demigod  had  cross'd  the  seas,  — 

From  haunts  of  shepherd,  nymph,  and  satyr. 
And  Syracusan  times,  —  to  these 

Far  shores  and  twenty  centuries  later. 

A  ragged  cap  was  on  his  head : 

But — hidden  thus  —  there  was  no  doubting 
That,  all  with  crispy  locks  o'erspread, 

His  gnarled  horns  were  somewhere  sprouting ; 
His  club-feet,  cased  in  rusty  shoes, 
Were  cross'd,  as  on  some  frieze  you  see  them. 
And  trousers,  patched  of  divers  hues, 

Conceal'd  his  crooked  shanks  beneath  them. 


fl/ 


Fiu.  104.    Bacchic  Dance 

He  filled  the  quivering  reeds  with  sound. 

And  o'er  his  mouth  their  changes  shifted, 
And  with  his  goat's-eyes  looked  around 

Where'er  the  passing  current  drifted  ; 
And  soon,  as  on  Trinacrian  hills 

The  nymphs  and  herdsmen  ran  to  hear  him, 
Even  now  the  tradesmen  from  their  tills. 

With  clerks  and  porters,  crowded  near  him. 


LESSER  DIVINITIES  OF  EARTH,  ETC. 

The  bulls  and  bears  together  drew 

From  Jauncey  Court  and  New  Street  Alley, 
As  erst,  if  pastorals  be  true. 

Came  beasts  from  every  wooded  valley ; 
The  random  passers  stay'd  to  list,  — 

A  boxer  ^gon,  rough  and  merry,  — 
A  Broadway  Daphnis,  on  his  tryst 

With  Nais  at  the  Brooklyn  Ferry. 


A  one-eyed  Cyclops  halted  long 

In  tatter 'd  cloak  of  army  pattern, 
And  Galatea  joined  the  throng,  — 

A  blowsy,  apple-vending  slattern  ; 
While  old  Silenus  stagger'd  out 

From  some  new-fangled  lunch-house  handy 
And  bade  the  piper,  with  a  shout, 

To  strike  up  "  Yankee  Doodle  Dandy !  " 

A  newsboy  and  a  peanut  girl 

Like  little  Fauns  began  to  caper : 
His  hair  was  all  in  tangled  curl, 

Her  tawny  legs  were  bare  and  taper. 
And  still  the  gathering  larger  grew, 

And  gave  its  pence  and  crowded  nigher. 
While  aye  the  shepherd-minstrel  blew 

His  pipe,  and  struck  the  gamut  higher. 

O  heart  of  Nature !  beating  still 

With  throbs  her  vernal  passion  taught  her,  — 
Even  here,  as  on  the  vine-clad  hill, 

Or  by  the  Arethusan  water ! 
New  forms  may  fold  the  speech,  new  lands 

Arise  within  these  ocean-portals, 
But  Music  waves  eternal  wands,  — 

Enchantress  of  the  souls  of  mortals ! 


185 


Fig.  105.    Silenus 


So  thought  I,  — but  among  us  trod 

A  man  in  blue  with  legal  baton ; 
And  scoff'd  the  vagrant  demigod. 

And  push'd  him  from  the  step  I  sat  on. 
Doubting  I  mused  upon  the  cry  — 

"  Great  Pan  is  dead !  "  —  and  all  the  people 
Went  on  their  ways :  —  and  clear  and  high 

The  quarter  sounded  from  the  steeple. 


i86 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


131.  Other  Lesser  Gods  of  Earth.  Of  the  company  of  the 
lesser  gods  of  earth,  besides  Pan,  were  the  Sileni,  the  Sylvans, 
the  Fauns,  and  the  Satyrs,  all  male  ;  the 
Oreads  and  the  Dr}-ads  or  Hamadryads, 
female.  To  these  may  be  added  the 
Naiads,  for,  although  they  dwelt  in  the 
streams,  their  association  with  the  deities 
of  earth  was  intimate.  Of  the  nymphs, 
the  Oreads  and  the  Naiads  were  immor- 
tal. The  love  of  Pan  for  Syrinx  has 
already  been  mentioned,  and  his  musical 
contest  with  Apollo.  Of  Silenus  we  have 
seen  something  in  the  adventures  of 
Bacchus.  What  kind  of  existence  the 
Sat\T  enjoyed  is  conveyed  in  the  follow- 
ing soliloquy  : 

The  trunk  of  this  tree, 

Dusky-leaved,  shaggy-rooted, 
Is  a  pillow  well  suited 

To  a  hybrid  like  me, 

Goat-bearded,  goat-footed ; 

For  the  boughs  of  the  glade 
Meet  above  me,  and  throw 


G.  1 06.    Satyr 


Fig.  107.    Satyr  swinging  Maiden 


LESSER  DIVINITIES  OF  EARTH,  ETC. 


187 


A  cool,  pleasant  Shade 
On  the  greenness  below ; 
Dusky  and  brown'd 
Close  the  leaves  all  around ; 
And  yet,  all  the  while. 

Thro'  the  boughs  I  can  see 
A  star,  with  a  smile, 
Looking  at  me.  .  .  . 


Why,  all  day  long, 

I  run  about 
With  a  madcap  throng, 
And  laugh  and  shout. 
Silenus  grips 

My  ears,  and  strides 
On  my  shaggy  hips, 
And  up  and  down 
In  an  ivy  crown 
Tipsily  rides ; 

And  when  in  doze 
His  eyelids  close, 
Off  he  tumbles,  and  I 
Can  his  wine-skin  steal, 

I  drink  —  and  feel 
The  grass  roll  —  sea  high  ; 

Then  with  shouts  and  yells, 
Down  mossy  dells, 
I  stagger  after 


Fig.  108.    Satyr  Drinking 


The  wood-nymphs  fleet. 
Who  with  mocking  laughter 

And  smiles  retreat ; 
And  just  as  I  clasp 
A  yielding  waist, 
With  a  cry  embraced, 
—  Gush  !  it  melts  from  my  grasp 
Into  water  cool. 

And  —  bubble  !  trouble  ! 
Seeing  double  ! 
I  stumble  and  gasp 
I  n  some  icy  pool !  ^ 

1  From  The  Satyr,  by  Robert  Buchanan. 


1 88  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

132.  Echo  and  Narcissus.^  Echo  was  a  beautiful  Oread,  fond  of 
the  woods  and  hills,  a  favorite  of  Diana,  whom  she  attended  in  the 
chase.  But  by  her  chatter  she  came  under  the  displeasure  of  Juno, 
who  condemned  her  to  the  loss  of  voice  save  for  purposes  of  reply. 


Fig.  109.   Narcissus 

Subsequently  having  fallen  in  love  with  Narcissus,  the  beautiful 
son  of  the  river-god  Cephissus,  Echo  found  it  impossible  to  express 
her  regard  for  him  in  any  way  but  by  mimicking  what  he  said  ; 
and  what  he  said,  unfortunately,  did  not  always  convey  her  senti- 
ments.   When,  however,  he  once  called  across  the  hills  to  her, 

1  Ovid,  Metam.  3,  339-510. 


LESSER  DIVINITIES  OF  EARTH,  ETC.  189 

"'  Let  us  join  one  another,"  the  maid,  answering  with  all  her  heart, 
hastened  to  the  spot,  ready  to  throw  her  arms  about  his  neck.  He 
started  back,  exclaiming,  "Hands  off!  I  would  rather  die  than 
thou  shouldst  have  me!"  "Have  me,"  said  she;  but  in  vain. 
From  that  time  forth  she  lived  in  caves  and  among  mountain  cliffs, 
and  faded  away  till  there  was  nothing  left  of  her  but  her  voice.  But 
through  his  future  fortunes  she  was  constant  to  her  cruel  lover. 

This  Narcissus  was  the  embodiment  of  self-conceit.  He  shunned 
the  rest  of  the  nymphs  as  he  had  shunned  Echo.  One  maiden, 
however,  uttered  a  prayer  that  he  might  some  time  or  other  feel 
what  it  was  to  love  and  meet  no  return  of  affection.  The  avenging 
goddess  heard.  Narcissus,  stooping  over  a  river  brink,  fell  in  love 
with  his  own  image  in  the  water.  He  talked  to  it,  tried  to  embrace 
it,  languished  for  it,  and  pined  until  he  died.  Indeed,  even  after 
death,  it  is  said  that  when  his  shade  passed  the  Stygian  river  it 
leaned  over  the  boat  to  catch  a  look  of  itself  in  the  waters.  The 
nymphs  mourned  for  Narcissus,  especially  the  water-nymphs  ;  and 
when  they  smote  their  breasts,  Echo  smote  hers  also.  They  pre- 
pared a  funeral  pile  and  would  have  burned  the  body,  but  it  was 
nowhere  to  be  found.  In  its  place  had  sprung  up  a  flower,  purple 
within  and  surrounded  with  white  leaves,  which  bears  the  name 
and  preserves  the  memory  of  the  son  of  Cephissus. 

133.  Echo,  Pan,  Lyde,  and  the  Satyr.  Another  interesting  epi- 
sode in  the  life  of  Echo  is  given  by  Moschus  :^ 

Pan  loved  his  neighbor  Echo ;   Echo  loved 

A  gamesome  Satyr ;  he,  by  her  unmoved, 

Loved  only  Lyde;  thus  through  Echo,  Pan, 

Lyde,  and  Satyr,  Love  his  circle  ran. 

Thus  all,  while  their  true  lovers'  hearts  they  grieved. 

Were  scorned  in  turn,  and  what  they  gave  received. 

O  all  Love's  scorners,  learn  this  lesson  true : 

Be  kind  to  love,  that  he  be  kind  to  you. 

134.  The  Naiads.  These  nymphs  guarded  streams  and  fountains 
of  fresh  water  and,  like  the  Naiad  who  speaks  in  the  following 
verses,  kept  them  sacred  for  Diana  or  some  other  divinity. 

1  Idyl  VI  (Lang's  translation).    For  Moschus,  see  Commentary,  §  298. 


I  go 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Dian  white-arm'd  has  given  me  this  cool  shrine 
Deep  in  the  bosom  of  a  wood  of  pine : 
The  silver-sparkling  showers 
That  hive  me  in,  the  flowers 
That  prink  my  fountain's  brim,  are  hers  and  mine  ; 
And  when  the  days  are  mild  and  fair. 

And  grass  is  springing,  buds  are  blowing, 
Sweet  it  is,  'mid  waters  flowing, 
Here  to  sit  and  know  no  care, 

'Mid  the  waters  flowing,  flowing,  flowing. 
Combing  my  yellow,  yellow  hair. 

The  ounce  and  panther  down  the  mountain  side 
Creep  thro'  dark  greenness  in  the  eventide ; 
And  at  the  fountain's  brink 
Casting  great  shades,  they  drink. 
Gazing  upon  me,  tame  and  sapphire-eyed ; 
For,  awed  by  my  pale  face,  whose  light 
Gleameth  thro'  sedge  and  lilies  yellow 
They,  lapping  at  my  fountain  mellow, 
Harm  not  the  lamb  that  in  affright 

Throws  in  the  pool  so  mellow,  mellow,  mellow. 
Its  shadow  small  and  dusky-white. 

Oft  do  the  fauns  and  satyrs,  flusht  with  play, 
Come  to  my  coolness  in  the  hot  noonday. 
Nay,  once  indeed,  I  vow 
By  Dian's  truthful  brow. 
The  great  god  Pan  himself  did  pass  this  way, 
And,  all  in  festal  oak-leaves  clad, 

His  limbs  among  these  lilies  throwing, 
Watch'd  the  silver  waters  flowing, 
Listen'd  to  their  music  glad. 

Saw  and  heard  them  flowing,  flowing,  flowing, 
And  ah  !  his  face  was  worn  and  sad ! 

Mild  joys  like  silvery  waters  fall ; 
But  it  is  sweetest,  sweetest  far  of  all, 

In  the  calm  summer  night. 

When  the  tree-tops  look  white, 
To  be  exhaled  in  dew  at  Dian's  call. 


LESSER  DIVINITIES  OF  EARTH,  ETC.  191 

Among  my  sister-clouds  to  move 

Over  the  darkness,  earth  bedimming, 

Milky-robed  thro'  heaven  swimming. 
Floating  round  the  stars  above. 

Swimming  proudly,  swimming  proudly,  swimming, 
And  waiting  on  the  Moon  I  love. 

So  tenderly  I  keep  this  cool,  green  shrine, 
Deep  in  the  bosom  of  a  wood  of  pine ; 
Faithful  thro'  shade  and  sun, 
That  service  due  and  done 
May  haply  earn  for  me  a  place  divine 
Among  the  white-robed  deities 

That  thread  thro'  starry  paths,  attending 
My  sweet  Lady,  calmly  wending 
Thro'  the  silence  of  the  skies, 

Changing  in  hues  of  beauty  never  ending, 
Drinking  the  light  of  Dian's  eyes.^ 

135.  The  Dryads,  or  Hamadryads,  assumed  at  times  the  forms 
of  peasant  girls,  shepherdesses,  or  followers  of  the  hunt.  But  they 
were  believed  to  perish  with  certain  trees  which  had  been  their 
abode  and  with  which  they  had  come  into  existence.  Wantonly  to 
destroy  a  tree  was  therefore  an  impious  act,  sometimes  severely 
punished,  as  in  the  cases  of  Erysichthon  and  Dryope. 

136.  Erysichthon, 2  a  despiser  of  the  gods,  presumed  to  violate 
with  the  ax  a  grove  sacred  to  Ceres.  A  venerable  oak,  whereon 
votive  tablets  had  often  been  hung  inscribed  with  the  gratitude 
of  mortals  to  the  nymph  of  the  tree,  —  an  oak  round  which  the 
Dryads  hand  in  hand  had  often  danced,  —  he  ordered  his  servants 
to  fell.  When  he  saw  them  hesitate,  he  snatched  an  ax  from  one, 
and  boasting  that  he  cared  not  whether  it  were  a  tree  beloved  of 
the  goddess  or  not,  addressed  himself  to  the  task.  The  oak  seemed 
to  shudder  and  utter  a  groan.  When  the  first  blow  fell  upon  the 
trunk,  blood  flowed  from  the  wound.  Warned  by  a  bystander  to 
desist,  Erysichthon  slew  him  ;  warned  by  a  voice  from  the  nymph 
of  the  tree,  he  redoubled  his  blows  and  brought  down  the  oak. 
The  Dryads  invoked  punishment  upon  Erysichthon. 

1  From  The  Naiad,  by  Robert  Buchanan.  2  Qvid,  Metam.  8,  738-884. 


192  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

The  goddess  Ceres,  whom  they  had  supphcated,  nodded  her 
assent.  She  dispatched  an  Oread  to  ice-clad  Scythia,  where  Cold 
abides,  and  Fear  and  Shuddering  and  Famine.  At  Mount  Cau- 
casus, the  Oread  stayed  the  dragons  of  Ceres  that  drew  her  chariot ; 
for  afar  off  she  beheld  Famine,  forespent  with  hunger,  pulling  up 
with  teeth  and  claws  the  scanty  herbage  from  a  stony  field.  To  her 
the  nymph  delivered  the  commands  of  Ceres,  then  returned  in 
haste  to  Thessaly,  for  she  herself  began  to  be  an  hungered. 

The  orders  of  Ceres  were  executed  by  Famine,  who,  speeding 
through  the  air,  entered  the  dwelling  of  Eiysichthon  and,  as  he 
slept,  enfolded  him  with  her  wings  and  breathed  herself  into  him. 
In  his  dreams  the  caitiff  craved  food  ;  and  when  he  awoke,  his 
hunger  raged.  The  more  he  ate,  the  more  he  craved,  till,  in 
default  of  money,  he  sold  his  daughter  into  slavery  for  edibles. 
Neptune,  however,  rescued  the  girl  by  changing  her  into  a  fisher- 
man ;  and  in  that  form  she  assured  the  slave-owner  that  she  had 
seen  no  woman  or  other  person,  except  herself,  thereabouts.  Then, 
resuming  her  own  appearance,  she  was  again  and  again  sold  by  her 
father ;  while  by  Neptune's  favor  she  became  on  each  occasion  a 
different  animal,  and  so  regained  her  home.  Finally,  increasing 
demands  of  hunger  compelled  the  father  to  devour  his  own  limbs ; 
and  in  due  time  he  finished  himself  off. 

137.  Dryope,  the  wife  of  Andraemon,  purposing  with  her  sistei 
lole  to  gather  flowers  for  the  altars  of  the  nymphs,  plucked  the 
purple  blossoms  of  a  lotus  plant  that  grew  near  the  water,  and 
offered  them  to  her  child.  lole,  about  to  do  the  same  thing,  per- 
ceived that  the  stem  of  the  plant  was  bleeding.  Indeed,  the  plant 
was  none  other  than  a  nymph,  Lotis,  who,  escaping  from  a  base 
pursuer,  had  been  thus  transformed. 

Dryope  would  have  hastened  from  the  spot,  but  the  displeasure 
of  the  nymph  had  fallen  upon  her.  While  protesting  her  inno- 
cence, she  began  to  put  forth  branches  and  leaves.  Praying  her 
husband  to  see  that  no  violence  was  done  to  her,  to  remind  their 
child  that  every  flower  or  bush  might  be  a  goddess  in  disguise,  to 
bring  him  often  to  be  nursed  under  her  branches,  and  to  teach 
him  to  say  "  My  mother  lies  hid  under  this  bark,"  — the  luckless 
woman  assumed  the  shape  of  a  lotus. 


LESSER  DIVINITIES  OF  EARTH,  ETC.  193 

138.  Rhoecus.^  The  Hamadr)'ads  could  appreciate  services  as 
well  as  punish  injuries. 

Hear  now  this  fairy  legend  of  old  Greece, 
As  full  of  freedom,  youth,  and  beauty  still, 
As  the  immortal  freshness  of  that  grace 
Carved  for  all  ages  on  some  Attic  frieze.'^ 

Rhcecus,  happening  to  see  an  oak  just  ready  to  fall,  propped 
it  up.  The  nymph,  who  had  been  on  the  point  of  perishing  with 
the  tree,  expressed  her  gratitude  to  him  and  bade  him  ask  what 
reward  he  would.  Rhoecus  boldly  asked  her  love,  and  the  nymph 
yielded  to  his  desire.  At  the  same  time  charging  him  to  be  mind- 
ful and  constant,  she  promised  to  expect  him  an  hour  before  sunset 
and,  meanwhile,  to  communicate  with  him  by  means  of  her  mes- 
senger, —  a  bee  : 

Now,  in  those  days  of  simpleness  and  faith. 
Men  did  not  think  that  happy  things  were  dreams 
Because  they  overstepped  the  narrow  bourn 
Of  likelihood,  but  reverently  deemed 
Nothing  too  wondrous  or  too  beautiful 
To  be  the  guerdon  of  a  daring  heart. 
So  Rhoecus  made  no  doubt  that  he  was  blest. 
And  all  along  unto  the  city's  gate 
Earth  seemed  to  spring  beneath  him  as  he  walked. 
The  clear,  broad  sky  looked  bluer  than  its  wont. 
And  he  could  scarce  believe  he  had  not  wings. 
Such  sunshine  seemed  to  glitter  through  his  veins 
Instead  of  blood,  so  light  he  felt  and  strange. 

But  the  day  was  past  its  noon.  Joining  some  comrades  over  the 
dice,  Rhoecus  forgot  all  else.  A  bee  buzzed  about  his  ear.  Impa- 
tiently he  brushed  it  aside  : 

Then  through  the  window  flew  the  wounded  bee, 
And  Rhoecus,  tracking  him  with  angry  eyes. 
Saw  a  sharp  mountain  peak  of  Thessaly 
Against  the  red  disk  of  the  setting  sun,  — 
And  instantly  the  blood  sank  from  his  heart.  .  .  . 

1  See  note  (Scholium)  on  the  Argonautics  of  Apollonius,  B  477.  Keil's  edition,  p.  415, 1.  32. 

2  J.  R.  Lowell,  Rhoecus.   The  student  should  read  the  whole  poem. 


194  'TH^  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

.  .  .  Quite  spent  and  out  of  breath  he  reached  the  tree, 
And,  listening  fearfully,  he  heard  once  more 
The  low  voice  murmur,  "  Rhcecus !  "  close  at  hand : 
Whereat  he  looked  around  him,  but  could  see 
Naught  but  the  deepening  glooms  beneath  the  oak. 
Then  sighed  the  voice,  "  O  Rhoecus !   nevermore 
Shalt  thou  behold  me  or  by  day  or  night, 
Me,  who  would  fain  have  blessed  thee  with  a  love 
More  ripe  and  bounteous  than  ever  yet 
Filled  up  with  nectar  any  mortal  heart : 
But  thou  didst  scorn  my  humble  messenger 
And  sent'st  him  back  to  me  with  bruised  wings. 
We  spirits  only  show  to  gentle  eyes, 
We  ever  ask  an  undivided  love, 
And  he  who  scorns  the  least  of  Nature's  works 
Is  thenceforth  exiled  and  shut  out  from  all. 
Farewell !  for  thou  canst  never  see  me  more." 

Then  Rhoecus  beat  his  breast,  and  groaned  aloud. 
And  cried,  "  Be  pitiful !  forgive  me  yet 
This  once,  and  I  shall  never  need  it  more !  " 
"Alas  !  "  the  voice  returned,  "  't  is  thou  art  blind, 
Not  I  unmerciful ;  I  can  forgive, 
But  have  no  skill  to  heal  thy  spirit's  eyes ; 
Only  the  soul  hath  power  o'er  itself." 
With  that  again  there  murmured,  "  Nevermore  !  " 
And  Rhoecus  after  heard  no  other  sound, 
Except  the  rattling  of  the  oak's  crisp  leaves. 
Like  the  long  surf  upon  a  distant  shore, 
Raking  the  sea-worn  pebbles  up  and  down. 
The  night  had  gathered  round  him :  o'er  the  plain 
The  city  sparkled  with  its  thousand  lights, 
And  sounds  of  revel  fell  upon  his  ear 
Harshly  and  like  a  curse ;  above,  the  sky, 
With  all  its  bright  sublimity  of  stars. 
Deepened,  and  on  his  forehead  smote  the  breeze: 
Beauty  was  all  around  him  and  delight. 
But  from  that  eve  he  was  alone  on  earth. 

According  to  the  older  tradition,  the  nymph  deprived  Rhcecus 
of  his  physical  sight ;  but  the  superior  insight  of  Lowell's  inter- 
pretation is  evident. 


LESSER  DIVINITIES  OF  EARTH,  ETC. 


195 


139.  Pomona  and  Vertumnus.^  Pomona  was  a  Hamadtyad  of 
Roman  mythology,  guardian  especially  of  the  apple  orchards,  but 
presiding  also  over  other  fruits.    "'  Bear  me,  Pomona,"  sings  one  of 

^        '  Bear  me,  Pomona,  to  thy  citron  groves, 

To  where  the  lemon  and  the  piercing  lime. 
With  the  deep  orange,  glowing  through  the  green. 
Their  lighter  glories  blend.    Lay  me  reclined 
Beneath  the  spreading  tamarind  that  shakes. 
Fanned  by  the  breeze,  its  fever-cooling  fruit.^ 

This  nymph  had  scorned  the  offers  of  love  made  her  by  Pan, 
Sylvanus,  and  innumerable  Fauns  and  Satyrs.  Vertumnus,  too, 
she  had  time  and  again  refused.  But  he,  the 
deity  of  gardens  and  of  the  changing  seasons, 
unwearied,  wooed  her  in  as  many  guises  as 
his  seasons  themselves  could  assume.  Now 
as  a  reaper,  now  as  haymaker,  now  as  plow- 
man, now  as  vinedresser,  now  as  apple-picker, 
now  as  fisherman,  now  as  soldier,  —  aH  to  no 
avail.  Finally,  as  an  old  woman,  he  came  to 
her,  admired  her  fruit,  admired  especially  the 
luxuriance  of  her  grapes,  descanted  on  the 
dependence  of  the  luxuriant  vine,  close  by, 
upon  the  elm  to.  which  it  was  clinging ; 
advised  Pomona,  likewise,  to  choose  some 
youth  —  say,  for  instance,  the  young  Vertum- 
nus —  about  whom  to  twine  Jiet'  arms.  Then 
he  told  how  the  worthy  Iphis,  spurned  by 
Anaxarete,  had  hanged  himself  to  her  gate- 
post ;  and  how  the  gods  had  turned  the  hard-hearted  virgin  to  stone 
even  as  she  gazed  on  her  lover's  funeral.  "  Consider  these  things, 
dearest  child,"  said  the  seeming  old  woman,  '"  lay  aside  thy  scorn 
and  thy  delays,  and  accept  a  lover.  So  may  neither  the  vernal  frosts 
blight  thy  young  fruits,  nor  furious  winds  scatter  thy  blossoms  !  " 

When  Vertumnus  had  thus  spoken,  he  dropped  his  disguise 
and  stood  before  Pomona  in  his  proper  person,  —  a  comely  youth. 
Such  wooing,  of  course,  could  not  but  win  its  just  reward. 

1  Ovid,  Metam.  14,  623-771.  2  Thomson,  Seasons. 


Fic.  I  ID.    A  Rustic 


196 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


140.  The  Cranes  of  Ibycus.^  The  Furies,  called  also  Dirae 
(the  terrible  ones),  Erinyes  (the  persecutors,  or  the  angered  ones), 
and  finally,  by  way  of  euphemism,  Eumenides  (the  well-meaning), 
though  they  were  spirits  of  the  underworld,  visited  earth  to  punish 
filial  disobedience,  irreverence  to  old  age,  perjury,  murder,  treach- 
ery to  guests,  even  unkindness  toward  beggars.  They  avenged  the 
ghosts  of  such  as,  dying  violent  deaths,  possessed  on  earth  no  rep- 
resentatives either  by  law  or  by  kindred  to  avenge  them.  There- 
fore, as  we  shall  see,  they  persecuted  Orestes,  who  had  slain  his 
mother.  Therefore,  like  the  accusing  voice 
of  conscience,  they  marshaled  to  punish- 
ment the  murderers  of  Ibycus. 

This  poet,  beloved  of  Apollo,  was,  while 
journeying  to  the  musical  contest  of  the 
Isthmus  at  Corinth,  attacked  by  two  robbers 
in  the  Corinthian  grove  of  Neptune.  Over- 
come by  them,  he  commended  his  cause  as 
he  fell  to  a  flock  of  cranes  that  happened 
to  be  screaming  hoarsely  overhead.  But 
when  his  body  was  found,  all  Greece,  then 
gathered  at  the  festival,  demanded  vengeance 
on  the  murderer. 

Soon  afterward,  the  vast  assemblage  in 
the  amphitheater  sat  listening  to  a  play  in 
which  the  Chorus  personated  the  Furies. 
The  Choristers,  clad  in  black,  bore  in  their  fieshless  hands  torches 
blazing  with  a  pitchy  flame.  Advancing  with  measured  step,  they 
formed  ranks  in  the  orchestra.  Their  cheeks  were  bloodless,  and 
in  place  of  hair  writhing  serpents  curled  around  their  brows. 
Forming  a  circle,  these  awful  beings  sang  their  hymn.  High  it 
swelled,  overpowering  the  sound  of  the  instruments  : 

"  Happy  the  man  whose  heart  is  pure  from  guilt  and  crime! 
Him  we  avengers  touch  not ;  he  treads  the  path  of  life  secure 
from  us.  But  woe !  woe  !  to  him  who  has  done  the  deed  of  secret 
murder.  We,  the  fearful  brood  of  Night,  fasten  ourselves  upon 
him,  soul  and  flesh.    Thinks  he  by  flight  to  escape  us  ?    Fly  we 

1  Cf.  Cicero,  Tusculan  Disputations,  4.  33,  71  ;  and  Statius,  Silvae,  5.  3,  152. 


Fig.  III.    A  Rustic 


LESSER  DIVINITIES  OF  EARTH,  ETC.  197 

still  faster  in  pursuit,  twine  our  snakes  around  his  feet,  and  bring  him 
to  the  ground.  Unwearied  we  pursue  ;  no  pity  checks  our  course  ; 
still  on,  still  on  to  the  end  of  life,  we  give  no  peace,  no  rest." 

Stillness  like  the  stillness  of  death  sat  over  the  assembly.  Sud- 
denly a  cry  burst  from  one  of  the  uppermost  benches,  — "  Lo, 
comrade,  the  avengers  of  Ibycus !  "  A  flock  of  cranes  crossed  the 
sky.  "The  murderer  has  informed  against  himself,"  shouted  the 
assemblage.  The  inference  was  correct.  The  criminals,  straight- 
way seized,  confessed  the  crime  and  suffered  the  penalty. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

MYTHS  OF  LESSER  DIVINITIES  OF  THE  WATERS 

141.  Galatea  and  Polyphemus.  The  water-gods  may  be  roughiy 
classed  as  dwellers  in  the  sea  and  dwellers  in  the  streams.  Of  the 
former,  daughters  of  Nereus  and  Doris,  none  was  fairer  than  Gala- 
tea, sister  of  Amphitrite  and  Thetis,  She  loved  Acis,  the  son  of 
Faunus  by  a  Naiad,  and  was  loved  in  return  ;  but  her  happiness 
was  disturbed  and  finally  ruined  by  the  persistent  and  jealous  at- 
tentions of  the  Cyclops  Polyphemus. 

For  the  first  time  in  his  life  the  Cyclops  began  to  care  for  his 
appearance  ;  he  harrowed  his  coarse  locks  with  a  currycomb,  mowed 
his  beard  with  a  sickle,  and,  looking  into  the  sea  when  it  was  calm, 
soliloquized,  "'  Beautiful  seems  my  beard,  beautiful  my  one  eye,  — ■ 
as  I  count  beauty,  —  and  the  sea  reflects  the  gleam  of  my  teeth 
whiter  than  the  Parian  stone."  ^ 

.  .  .  He  loved,  not  with  apples,  not  roses,  nor  locks  of  hair,  but  with  fatal 
frenzy ;  and  all  things  else  he  held  but  trifles  by  the  way.  Many  a  time  from 
the  green  pastures  would  his  ewes  stray  back,  self-shepherded,  to  the  fold. 
But  he  was  singing  of  Galatea ;  and  pining  in  his  place,  he  sat  by  the  sea- 
weed of  the  beach  from  the  dawn  of  day  with  the  direst  hurt  beneath  his 
breast  of  mighty  Cypris'  sending,  —  the  wound  of  her  arrow  in  his  heart ! 

Yet  this  remedy  he  found,  and  sitting  on  the  crest  of  the  tall  cliff  and 
looking  to  the  deep,  'twas  thus  he  would  sing  : 

"Oh,  milk-white  Galatea,  why  cast  off  him  that  loves  thee?  More  white 
than  is  pressed  milk  to  look  upon,  more  delicate  than  the  lamb  art  thou,  than 
the  young  calf  wantoner,  more  sleek  than  the  unripened  grape !  Here  dost 
thou  resort,  even  so,  when  sweet  sleep  possesses  me,  and  home  straightway 
dost  thou  depart  when  sweet  sleep  lets  me  go,  fleeing  me  like  an  ewe  that 
has  seen  the  gray  wolf.  I  fell  in  love  with  thee,  maiden,  I,  on  the  day  when 
first  thou  camest,  with  my  mother,  and  didst  wish  to  pluck  the  hyacinths  from 
the  hill,  and  I  was  thy  guide  on  the  way.    But  to  leave  loving  thee  when 

1  Theocritus,  Idyl  VI.    See  Andrew  Lang's  translation. 


MVTHS  OF  LESSER  DIVINITIES  OF  THE  WATERS    199 


once  I  had  seen  thee,  neither  afterward,  nor  now  at  all,  have  I  the  strength, 
even  from  that  hour.  But  to  thee  all  this  is  as  nothing,  by  Zeus,  nay,  nothing 
at  all ! 

"  I  know,  thou  gracious  maiden,  why  it  is  that  thou  dost  shun  me.  It  is 
all  for  the  shaggy  brow  that  spans  my  forehead,  from  this  to  the  other  ear, 
one  long,  unbroken  eyebrow.  And  but  one  eye  is  on  my  forehead,  and  broad 
is  the  nose  that  overhangs  my  lip.  Yet  I  (even  such  as  thou  seest  me)  feed  a 
thousand  cattle,  and  from  these  I  draw 
and  drink  the  best  milk  in  the  world. 
And  cheese  I  never  lack,  in  summer  time 
or  autumn,  nay,  nor  in  the  dead  of  winter, 
but  my  baskets  are  always  overladen. 

"Also  I  am  skilled  in  piping,  as  none 
other  of  the  Cyclopes  here,  and  of  thee, 
my  love,  my  sweet  apple,  and  of  myself, 
too,  I  sing,  many  a  time,  deep  in  the  night. 
And  for  thee  I  tend  eleven  fawns,  all  cres- 
cent browed,  and  four  young  whelps  of  the 
bear.  Nay,  come  thou  to  me  and  thou  shalt 
lack  nothing  that  now  thou  hast.  .  .  . 

"  But  if  thou  dost  refuse  because  my 
body  seems  shaggy  and  rough,  well,  I  have 
faggots  of  oak-wood,  and  beneath  the  ashes 
is  fire  unwearied,  and  I  would  endure  to  let 
thee  bum  my  very  soul,  and  this  my  one 
eye,  the  dearest  thing  that  is  mine. 

"Ah  me,  that  my  mother  bore  me  not 
a  finny  thing,  so  would  I  have  gone  down 
to  thee,  and  kissed  thy  hand,  if  thy  lips 
thou  would  not  suffer  me  to  kiss  !  And 
I  would  have  brought  thee  either  white 
lilies  or  the  soft  poppy  with  its  scarlet  petals.  Nay,  these  are  summer's 
flowers,  and  those  are  flowers  of  winter,  so  I  could  not  have  brought  thee 
them  all  at  one  time. 

"  Now,  verily,  maiden,  now  and  here  will  I  learn  to  swim,  if  perchance 
some  stranger  come  hither,  sailing  with  his  ship,  that  I  may  see  why  it  is  so 
dear  to  thee  to  have  thy  dwelling  in  the  deep.  Come  forth,  Galatea,  and 
forget  as  thou  comest,  even  as  I  that  sit  here  have  forgotten,  the  homeward 
way !  .  .  . 

"  Oh,  Cyclops,  Cyclops,  whither  are  thy  wits  wandering .''  Ah,  that  thou 
wouldst  go  and  weave  thy  wickerwork  and  gather  broken  boughs  to  carry  to 
thy  lambs :  in  faith,  if  thou  didst  this,  far  wiser  wouldst  thou  be ! 


Fig. 


[12.   Galatea  and 
Polyphemus 


200  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

"Milk  the  ewe  that  thou  hast;  why  pursue  the  thing  that  shuns  thee? 
Thou  wilt  find,  perchance,  another,  and  a  fairer,  Galatea.  Many  be  the  girls 
that  bid  me  stay  with  them,  and  softly  they  all  laugh,  if  perchance  I  answer 
them.    On  land  it  is  plain  that  I,  too,  seem  to  be  somebody !  "  ^ 

Having,  one  day,  in  such  wise  sung,  Polyphemus  wandered, 
beside  himself  for  passion,  into  the  woods.  On  a  sudden  he  came 
in  sight  of  Galatea  and  Acis  in  the  hollow  of  a  rock,  where  they 
had  hearkened  to  the  strains  of  the  Cyclops.  The  monster,  infuriate, 

crying  that  this  should  be  the  last  of 
their  love-meetings,  overwhelmed  his 
rival  with  a  tremendous  rock.  Purple 
blood  spirted  from  under  the  stone,  by 
degrees  grew  paler,  and  finally  became 
the  stream  that  still  bears  the  name  of 
the  unfortunate  youth.  But  Galatea  re- 
mained inconsolable.^ 

142.  Glaucus  and  Scylla.^  Another 
deity  of  the  sea  was  Glaucus,  the  son 
of  that  Sisyphus  who  was  punished  in 
Hades  for  his  treachery  to  the  gods. 
Glaucus  had  been  a  comely  young  fish- 
erman ;  but  having  noticed  that  a  cer- 
tain herb  revived  fishes  after  they  were 
biG.  113.    A  Sea-God  ,  ,  1       ,    ,  r-         -,       r^        ■, 

brought  to  land,  he  ate  of  it  and  suffered 

metamorphosis  into  something  new  and  strange,  half  man,  half 
fish,  and  after  the  fashion  of  a  sea-god.  Of  his  experience  during 
this  "  sea  change  "  the  following  is  an  account : 

I  plunged  for  life  or  death.    To  interknit 

One's  senses  with  so  dense  a  breathing  stuff 

Might  seem  a  work  of  pain  ;  so  not  enough 

Can  I  admire  how  crystal-smooth  it  felt, 

And  buoyant  round  my  limbs.    At  first  I  dwelt 

Whole  days  and  days  in  sheer  astonishment ; 

Forgetful  utterly  of  self-intent, 

Moving  but  with  the  mighty  ebb  and  flow. 

Then  like  a  new-fledged  bird  that  first  doth  show 

1  Theocritus,  Idyl  XI  (Lang's  translation).  2  Qvid,  Metam.  13,  750-867. 

3  Ovid,  Metom.  13,  898 ;  14,  74  ;  Tibullus,  3,  4-89. 


MYTHS  OF  LESSER  DIVINITIES  OF  THE  WATERS    20 1 

His  spreaded  feathers  to  the  morrow  chill, 
I  tried  in  fear  the  pinions  of  my  will. 
'T  was  freedom  !  and  at  once  I  visited 
The  ceaseless  wonders  of  this  ocean  bed.^ 

He  became  guardian  of  fishes  and  divers  and  of  those  who  go 
down  to  the  sea  in  ships.  Later,  being  infatuated  of  the  fair  vir- 
gin Scylla  (daughter  of  the  sea-god  Phorcys  and  granddaughter  of 
Pontus),  he  paid  his  court  to  her,  but  the  maiden  rejected  him. 
Whereupon,  in  desperation,  Glaucus  sought  the  aid  of  Circe,  an 
enchantress.  She,  because  she  coveted  for  herself  the  handsome 
sea-green  god,  transformed  her  rival  into  a  monster  hideously 
fashioned  of  serpents  and  barking  dogs.^  In  this  shape  Scylla 
thereafter  infested  the  shore  of  Sicily  and  worked  evil  to  mariners,'"^ 
till  finally  she  was  petrified  as  a  reef,  none  the  less  perilous  to 
all  seafarers. 

A  modern  version  of  the  fate  of  Glaucus  and  Scylla  is  given  by 
Keats  in  the  Endymion,  Glaucus  consents  to  Circe's  blandish- 
ments for  a  season,  but  becoming  disgusted  with  her  treachery 
and  cruelty,  he  endeavors  to  escape  from  her.  The  attempt  prov- 
ing unsuccessful,  he  is  brought  back  and  sentenced  to  pass  a 
thousand  years  in  decrepitude  and  pain.  Consequently,  returning 
to  the  sea,  he  there  discovers  the  body  of  Scylla,  whom  the  god- 
dess has  not  transformed,  but  drowned,  and  learns  that  if  he 
passes  his  thousand  years  in  collecting  the  bodies  of  drowned 
lovers,  a  youth  beloved  of  the  gods  will,  in  time,  appear  and  help 
him.  This  prophecy  is  fulfilled  by  Endymion,  who  aids  in  restor- 
ing Glaucus  to  youth,  and  Scylla  and  the  drowned  lovers  to  life. 

143.  Nisus  and  Scylla.^  The  daughter  of  Phorcys  is  fre- 
quently confounded  with  another  Scylla,  daughter  of  King  Nisus 
of  Megara.  Scylla  of  Megara  betrayed  her  father  to  his  enemy, 
Minos  II  of  Crete,  with  whom,  although  the  kings  were  at  war, 
she  had  fallen  violently  in  love.  It  seems  that  Nisus  had  on  his 
head  a  purple  lock  of  hair,  upon  which  depended  his  fortune  and 
his  life.  This  lock  his  daughter  clipped  and  conveyed  to  Minos. 
But  recoiling  from  the  treacherous  gift,  that  king,  after  he  had 

1  From  Keats'  Endymion.  2  §§  50,  52,  and  Commentary. 

3  See  §§  239,  250,  Adventures  of  Ulysses  and  /Ensas.  *  Apollodorus,  3,  15,  §  8. 


202  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

conquered  Megara,  bound  Scylla  to  the  rudder  of  his  ship  and  so 
dragged  her  through  the  waves  toward  Crete.  The  girl  was  ulti- 
mately transformed  into  the  monster  of  the  barking  dogs,  or,  ac- 
cording to  another  authority,  into  a  bird  continually  the  prey  of 
the  sea  eagle,  whose  form  her  father  Nisus  had  assumed, 

144.  Leucothea.^  Another  sea  change  was  that  of  Ino,  the 
daughter  of  Cadmus  and  wife  of  Athamas,  who,  flying  from  her 
frantic  husband,  sprang,  with  her  child  Melicertes  in  her  arms, 
from  a  cliff  into  the  sea.  The  gods,  out  of  compassion,  made  her 
a  goddess  of  the  sea  under  the  name  of  Leucothea,  and  her  son 
a  god  under  that  of  Palaemon,  Both  were  held  powerful  to  save 
from  shipwreck  and  were  invoked  by  sailors,  Palasmon  was  usu- 
ally represented  as  riding  on  a  dolphin.  In  his  honor  the  Isthmian 
games  were  celebrated.  By  the  Romans  he  was  called  Portumnus, 
and  had  jurisdiction  of  ports  and  shores. 

145.  Proteus  and  Aristaeus.^  Though  Aristaeus,  the  lover  of 
Eurydice,  was  son  of  Apollo  and  guardian  himself  of  herds  and 
flocks,  protector  of  vine  and  olive,  and  keeper  of  bees,  still  he 
was  son  of  Cyrene,  a  water-nymph,  and  his  most  interesting  ad- 
venture brought  him  into  contact  with  another  deity  of  the  sea. 

His  bees  having  perished,  Aristasus  resorted  for  aid  to  his 
mother.  She,  surrounded  by  her  maidens  in  the  cr)^stalline  abode 
under  her  river,  overheard  his  complaints  and  ordered  that  he 
should  be  brought  into  her  presence.  The  stream  at  her  com- 
mand opened  itself  and  let  him  enter,  while  it  stood  heaped  like 
a  mountain  on  either  side.  Cyrene  and  her  nymphs,  having  poured 
out  libations  to  Neptune,  gave  the  youth  to  eat  and  listened  to  his 
complaint,  then  informed  him  that  an  aged  prophet  named  Proteus, 
who  dwelt  in  the  sea  and  pastured  the  sea  calves  of  Neptune, 
could  explain  the  cause  of  the  mortality  among  the  bees  and  how 
to  remedy  it ;  but  that  the  wizard  would  have  to  be  chained  and 
compelled  to  answer,  and  that  even  when  chained,  he  would  try  to 
escape  by  assuming  a  series  of  dreadful  forms.  "  Still,  thou  hast 
but  to  keep  him  fast  bound,"  concluded  Cyrene,  "and  at  last, 
when  he  finds  his  arts  of  no  avail,  he  will  obey  thy  behest."    The 

1  Ovid,  Metam.  4,  452-542. 

2  Cf.  Odyssey,  4,  410  ;  Ovid,  Fasti,  i,  369  ;  \'irgil,  Georgics,  4,  317. 


MYTHS  OF  LESSER  DIVINITIES  OF  THE  WATERS     203 

nymph  then  sprinkled  her  son  with  nectar,  whereupon  an  unusual 
vigor  filled  his  frame  and  courage  his  heart. 

Cyrene  led  her  son  to  the  prophet's  cave,  which  was  in  the 
island  of  Pharos,  or  of  Carpathos,^  and  concealed  him.  At  noon 
issued  Proteus  from  the  water,  followed  by  his  herd  of  sea  calves, 
which  spread  themselves  along  the  shore.  He,  too,  stretched  him- 
self on  the  floor  of  the  cave  and  went  to  sleep.  Aristaeus  immedi- 
ately clapped  fetters  on  him  and  shouted  at  the  top  of  his  voice. 
Proteus,  finding  himself  captured,  resorted  to  his  craft,  becoming 
first  a  fire,  then  a  flood,  then  a  horrible  wild  beast,  in  rapid  suc- 
cession ;  nor  did  he  succumb  till  all  schemes  had  failed  to  set  him 
free.  Then  he  resumed  his  old  form  and,  in  response  to  the 
questioning  of  Aristaeus,  said  :  "  Thou  receivest  the  merited  reward 
of  thy  deed,  by  which  Eur^'dice  met  her  death.  To  avenge  her, 
the  nymphs  have  sent  this  destruction  on  thy  bees.  Their  anger 
thou  must  appease.  Four  bulls  shalt  thou  select,  of  perfect  form 
and  size,  and  four  cows  of  equal  beauty  ;  and  four  altars  shalt  thou 
build  to  the  nymphs,  and  shalt  sacrifice  the  animals,  leaving  their 
carcasses  in  the  leafy  grove.  To  Orpheus  and  Eurj'dice  thou  shalt 
pay  such  funeral  honors  as  may  allay  their  resentment.  Returning 
after  nine  days,  examine  the  bodies  of  the  cattle  slain  and  see 
what  has  befallen."  Aristaeus  faithfully  obeyed  these  directions. 
Returning  to  the  grove  on  the  ninth  day  he  found  that  a  swarm 
of  bees  had  taken  possession  of  one  of  the  carcasses  and  were  pur- 
suing their  labors  there  as  in  a  hive.'-^ 

146.  Acheloiis  and  Hercules.-'^  A  similar  contest  took  place 
between  Hercules  and  the  river-god  Acheloiis.  The  cause  of  the 
strife  was  Dejanira  of  Calydon,  whom  both  heroes  loved.  Hercules 
boasted  his  divine  descent.  Acheloiis,  not  content  with  advanc- 
ing his  claim  as  lord  of  the  mightiest  and  most  ancient  river  of 
Greece,  insinuated  suspicions  with  regard  to  the  value  of  Hercules' 
pretensions.  Then  began  a  mighty  struggle.  Finding  he  was  no 
match  for  Hercules  in  the  wrestler's  art,  Acheloiis  glided  away 
in  the  form  of  a  serpent.  Hercules,  remarking  that  it  was  the 
labor  of    his   infancy  to    strangle   snakes,'*  clasped   the   neck  of 

1  Cf.  §  147,  Milton's  Carpathian  Wizard.  3  Qvid,  Metam.  9,  i-ioo. 

2  See  Commentary.  4  §  156. 


204 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Achelous'and  choked  him.  Then 
Acheloiis  assumed  the  seeming  of 
a  bull.  Whereupon  Hercules,  seiz- 
ing him  by  the  horns,  dragged  his 
head  to  the  ground,  overthrew  him, 
and  rent  one  horn  away.  This 
trophy  the  Naiads  consecrated  and 
filled  with  flowers  for  the  goddess 
of  Plenty,  who,  adopting  it  as  her 
symbol,  named  it  Cornucopia. 

147.  Milton's  Sabrina  Fair.  No 
writer  in  modern  times  has  made 
more  graceful  poetic  use  of  the  divini- 
ties of  the  streams  than  has  Milton. 
The  following  song,  chanted  by  a 
Spirit  in  invocation  of  "the  gentle 
nymph  "  (of  the  poet's  invention) 
that  with  moist  curb  sways  the 
smooth  Severn  stream,"  is  but  one 
refrain  of  many  caught  by  the  poet 
from  the  far-echoing  chorus  of  clas- 
sical verse  : 

Sabrina  fair, 

Listen  where  thou  art  sitting 
Under  the  glassy,  cool,  translucent  wave. 

In  twisted  braids  of  lilies  knitting 
The  loose  train  of  thy  amber-dropping  hair  ; 

Listen  for  dear  honor's  sake, 

Goddess  of  the  silver  lake, 

Listen  and  save. 

Listen  and  appear  to  us 
In  name  of  great  Oceanus. 
By  th'  earth-shaking  Neptune's  mace, 
And  Tethys'  grave,  majestic  pace, 
By  hoary  Nereus'  wrinkled  look, 
And  the  Carpathian  wizard's  hook, 
By  scaly  Triton's  winding  shell, 
And  old  soothsaying  Glaucus'  spell, 


MYTHS  OF  LESSER  DIVINITIES  OF  THE  WATERS    205 

By  Leucothea's  lovely  hands, 
And  her  son  that  rules  the  strands, 
By  Thetis'  tinsel-slippered  feet, 
And  the  songs  of  Sirens  sweet, 
By  dead  Parthenope's^  dear  tomb 
And  fair  Ligea's^  golden  comb, 
Wherewith  she  sits  on  diamond  rocks, 
Sleeking  her  soft,  alluring  locks, 
By  all  the  nymphs  that  nightly  dance 
Upon  thy  streams  with  wily  glance  ; 
Rise,  rise,  and  heave  thy  rosy  head 
From  thy  coral-paven  bed. 
And  bridle  in  thy  headlong  wave. 
Till  thou  our  summons  answered  have. 
Listen  and  save.^ 

1  See  Commentary.  2  Milton,  Comus,  S59-889. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

MYTHS  OF  THE  OLDER  HEROES  :  THE  HOUSE 
OF  DANAUS,  AND  ITS  CONNECTIONS 

148.  The  Older  and  the  Younger  Heroes.  We  have  already 
narrated  the  adventures  of  certain  demigods  and  heroes,  such 
as  Prometheus,  DeucaHon,  Cadmus,  Amphion,  Orpheus.  Others 
of  importance  were  Perseus,  Hercules,  Minos,  CEdipus,  Theseus, 
Jason,  Meleager,  Peleus,  Pelops,  Castor  and  Pollux.  These  and 
their  contemporaries  may  be  called  the  Older  Heroes.  They  are 
renowned  either  for  individual  exploits  or  for  the  part  played  by 
them  in  one  or  more  of  three  great  expeditions,  — the  War  against 
Laomedon  of  Troy,  the  Voyage  for  the  Golden  Fleece,  and  the 
Hunt  of  the  Calydonian  Boar. 

The  Yoimger  Heroes  were  of  a  later  generation,  which  was 
concerned  in  four  important  enterprises, — the  War  of  the  Seven 
against  Thebes,  the  Trojan  War,  the  Wanderings  of  Ulysses,  and 
the  Adventures  of  yEncas. 

The  exploits  of  the  Older  Heroes  may  be  arranged  in  respect  of 
their  probable  sequence  in  time,  and  of  their  grouping  according 
to  families  of  heroes.  If  we  observe  the  principle  of  genealog}', 
one  race,  that  of  Inachus  of  Argos,  attracts  our  notice  in  the  heroes 
descended  from  Pelasgus,i  Belus,  and  Agenor.  The  family  of  Belus 
gives  us  the  famous  House  of  Danaiis,  the  family  of  Agenor  the 
Houses  of  Minos  and  Labdacus.  Another  race,  that  of  Deucalion, 
gives  us  the  heroes  of  the  Hellenic  branch,  most  notably  those 
descended  from  yEolus.  With  these  families  most  of  the  Older 
Heroes  are,  by  blood  or  by  adventure,  to  some  extent  connected. 
Bearing  this  fact  in  mind  and  at  the  same  time  observing  the 
chronological  sequence  of  adventures,  we  obtain  an  arrangement  of 
myths  as  illustrating  the  races,  families,  or  houses  —  (i)  of  Danaiis 
of  Argos,  (2)  of  ^olus  of  Thessaly,  (3)  of  ^tolus,  (4)  of  Minos 


1  §  21,  and  Commentary,  § 
206 


„.?f^ 


^ 


.^^, 


OLDER  HEROES  :  HOUSE  OF  DANAUS,  ETC.        207 

of  Crete,  (5)  of  Cecrops   and   of,  Erichthonius   of  Attica,  (6)  of 
Lab'dacus  of  Thebes.^,  iyp '■''''" 

149.  The  Genealogy  of  Danaiis.  As  the  Hellenes,  in  the  north, 
traced  their  descent  from  Deucalion  and  Pyrrha  of  Thessaly,  so  the 
Pelasgic  races  of  the  south  from  the  river-god  Inachus,  son  of 
Oceanus.  The  son  of  Inachus,  Phoroneus,  lived  in  the  Pelopon- 
nesus and  founded  the  town  of  Argos.  This  Phoroneus  conferred 
upon  the  Argives  the  benefits  attributed  by  other  Greeks  to  Pro- 
metheus. He  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Pelasgus,  from  whom 
a  division  of  the  Greek  people  derive  their  name.  With  the 
love  of  Jupiter  for  the  sister  of  Phoroneus,  the  fair  Jo,  we  are 
already  acquainted.  Her  son  was  Epaphus,  king  of  Egypt,  from 
whom  were  descended 

(i)  Agenor  of  Phoe- 
nicia, father  of  Europa 
and  Cadmus,  and  (2) 
Belus  of  Egypt,  father 
of  ^gyptus  and  Da- 
naiis. To  the  family 
of  Agenor  we  shall  re- 
turn in  the  history  of 
Minos,  son  of  Europa, 
and  of  CEdipus,  de- 
scendant of  Cadmus. 

150.  The  Danaids.2  yEgyptus  and  his  fifty  sons  drove  Danaiis 
and  his  fifty  daughters  back  to  Argos,  the  ancestral  home  of  the 
race.  Finally,  a  reconciliation  was  arranged  by  means  of  a  fiftyfold 
marriage  between  the  sons  of  ^gyptus  and  the  Danai'ds.  But  in 
accordance  with  a  treacherous  command  of  Danaiis,  all  his  daugh- 
ters save  Hypermnestra  slew  their  husbands  on  the  wedding  night. 
For  this  crime  the  forty-nine  Danaids  were  condemned  to  spend 
eternity  in  Tartarus,  trying  to  fill  with  water  a  vessel  full  of  holes. 
From  Hypermnestra  and  her  husband,  Lynceus,  was  sprung  the 
royal  house  of  Argos.  Their  son  was  Abas,  their  grandson,  Acri- 
sius,  —  of  whom  the  following  narrative  is  told. 

1  For  references  to  genealogical  tables,  see  Commentary,  §  14S. 
'jj  2  Apollodorus,  2,  I,  §  5,  etc. ;  Pausanias  ;  Ovid,  Heroides,  14  ;  Horace,  Odes,  3  ;  11;  23 


Fig.  115.   The  Danaids 


208 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


151.  The  Doom  of  King  Acrisius.^  The  daughter  of  Acrisius 
was  Danae,  of  surpassing  lovehness.  In  consequence  of  an  oracle 
which  had  prophesied  that  the  son  of  Danae  would  be  the  means 
of  his  grandfather's  death,  the  hapless  girl  was  shut  in  an  under- 
ground chamber,  that  no  man  might  love  or  wed  her.  But  Jupiter, 
distilling  himself  into  a  shower  of  gold,  flooded  the  girl's  prison, 
wooed,  and  won  her.  Their  son  w'as  Perseus.  King  Acrisius,  in 
dismay,  ordered  mother  and  child  to  be  boxed  up  in  a  chest  and 
set  adrift  on  the  sea.  The  two  unfortunates  were,  however,  rescued 
at  Seriphus  by  a  fisherman,  who  conveyed  the  mother  and  infant 


Fig.  ii6.    Danae  and  Perseus  and  the  Chest 


to  Polydectes,  king  of  the  country,  by  whom  they  were  treated  at 
first  w'ith  kindness,  but  afterwards  with  cruelty. 

152.  Perseus  and  Medusa. ^  When  Perseus  was  grown  up,  Poly- 
dectes sent  him  to  attempt  the  conquest  of  the  Gorgon  Medusa,^ 
a  terrible  monster  who  had  laid  waste  the  country.  She  had  once 
been  a  maiden  whose  hair  was  her  chief  glory,  but  as  she  dared  to  vie 
in  beauty  with  Minerva,  the  goddess  deprived  her  of  her  charms  and 
changed  her  ringlets  into  hissing  serpents.  She  became  a  monster 
of  so  "frightful  an  aspect  that  no  living  thing  could  behold  her 
without  being  turned  into  stone.  All  around  the  cavern  where  she 
dwelt  might  be  seen  the  stony  figures  of  men  and  animals  that  had 

1  Simonides  of  Ceos,  also  Apollodorus,  Pausanias,  and  Hyginus  (Fables). 

.2  Ovid,  Metam.  4,  608-739  ;  5,  1-249.  ^  For  Gorgons  and  Grasae,  see  §  52. 


OLDER  HEROES:  HOUSE  OF  DANAUS,  ETC.       209 


chanced  to  catch  a  ghmpse  of  her  and  had  been  petrified  at  the 
sight.  Perseus,  favored  by  Minerva  and  Mercury,  set  out  against 
the  Gorgon,  and  approached  first  the  cave  of  the  three  Graese  : 

There  sat  the  crones  that  had  the  single  eye, 
Clad  in  blue  sweeping  cloak  and  snow-white  gown  ; 
While  o'er  their  backs  their  straight  white  hair  hung  down 
In  long  thin  locks ;  dreadful  their 

faces  were, 
Carved  all  about  with  wrinkles 

of  despair ; 
And  as  they  sat  they  crooned  a 

dreary  song, 
Complaining    that    their    lives 

should  last  so  long, 
In  that  sad  place  that  no  one 

came  anear, 
In  that  wan  place  desert  of  hope 

and  fear ; 
And  singing,  still  they  rocked 

their  bodies  bent, 
And  ever  each  to  each  the  eye 

they  sent.^ 


Fig.  117.    Medusa 


Snatching  the  eye,  Perseus  compelled  the  Graeae,  as  the  price 
of  its  restoration,  to  tell  him  how  he  might  obtain  the  helmet  of 

Hades  that  renders  its  wearer  invisible, 
and  the  winged  shoes  and  pouch  that 
were  necessary.  With  this  outfit,  to 
which  Minerva  added  her  shield  and 
Mercury  his  knife,  Perseus  sped  to  the 
hall  of  the  Gorgons.  In  silence  sat  two 
of  the  sisters,  — 

But  a  third  woman  paced  about  the  hall, 
And  ever  turned  her  head  from  wall  to  wall 
And  moaned  aloud,  and  shrieked  in  her  despair ; 
Because  the  golden  tresses  of  her  hair 
Were  moved  by  writhing  snakes  from  side  to  side, 
Fig.  118.    Medusa  That  in  their  writhing  oftentimes  would  glide 


1  William  Morris,  The  Doom  of  King  Acrisius,  in  The  Earthly  Paradise. 


2IO 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


On  to  her  breast,  or  shuddering  shoulders  white ; 
Or,  falling  down,  the  hideous  things  would  light 
Upon  her  feet,  and  crawling  thence  would  twine 
Their  slimy  folds  about  her  ankles  fine.^ 

This  was  Medusa.  Her,  while  she  was  praying  the  gods  to  end 
her  misery,  or,  as  some  say,  while  she  was  sleeping,  Perseus  ap- 
proached, and,  guided  by  her 
image  reflected  in  the  bright 
shield  which  he  bore,  cut  off 
her  head,  and  so  ended  her 
miserable  existence.  Thus  are 
described  the  horror  and  the 
grace  of  her  features  in  death  : 

It  lieth,  gazing  on  the  midnight  sky, 
Upon    the   cloudy    mountain   peak 
supine ; 

Below,  far  lands  are  seen  tremblingly ; 
Its  horror  and  its  beauty  are  divine. 

Upon  its  lips  and  eyelids  seems  to  lie 
Loveliness  like  a  shadow,  from  which 
shine. 

Fiery  and  lurid,  struggling  underneath, 

The  agonies  of  anguish  and  of  death. 

Yet  it  is  less  the  horror  than  the  grace 
Which    turns    the  gazer's   spirit  into 
stone ; 
Whereon   the   lineaments   of   that  dead 
face 
Are    graven,    till    the    characters    be 
grown 
Into   itself,   and    thought   no   more  can 
trace ; 
'T  is    the    melodious    hue    of    beauty 
thrown 
Athwart  the  darkness  and  the  glare  of  pain, 
Which  humanize  and  harmonize  the  strain.^  .   .  . 


Fig.  119.    Perseus 
From  the  sculpture  by  Cellini 


1  William  Morris,  The  Doom  of  King  Acrisius,  in  The  Earthly  Paradise. 

2  From  Shelley's  lines  On  the  Medusa  of  Leonardo  Da  Vinci  in  the  Florentine  Gallery 


OLDER  HEROES  :  HOUSE  OF  DANAUS,  ETC.   2  1 1 


153.  Perseus  and  Atlas.  From  the  body  of  Medusa  sprang 
the  winged  horse  Pegasus,  of  whose  rider,  Bellerophon,  we  shall 
presently  be  informed. 

After  the  slaughter  of  Medusa,  Perseus,  bearing  with  him  the  head 
of  the  Gorgon,  flew  far  and  wide,  over  land  and  sea.  As  night  came 
on,  he  reached  the  western  limit  of  the  earth,  and  would  gladly  have 
rested  till  morning.  Here  was  the  realm  of  Atlas,  whose  bulk  sur- 
passed that  of  all  other  men.  He  was  rich  in  flocks  and  herds,  but 
his  chief  pride  was  his  garden  of  the  Hesperides,  whose  fruit  was 
of  gold,  hanging  from  golden  branches, 
half  hid  with  golden  leaves.  Perseus  said 
to  him,  "  I  come  as  a  guest.  If  thou  bold- 
est in  honor  illustrious  descent,  I  claim 
Jupiter  for  my  father  ;  if  mighty  deeds,  I 
plead  the  conquest  of  the  Gorgon.  I  seek 
rest  and  food."  But  Atlas,  remembering 
an  ancient  prophecy  that  had  warned  him 
against  a  son  of  Jove  who  should  one  day 
rob  him  of  his  golden  apples,  attempted 
to  thrust  the  youth  out.  Whereupon  Per- 
seus, finding  the  giant  too  strong  for  him, 
held  up  the  Gorgon's  head.  Atlas,  with 
all  his  bulk,  was  changed  into  stone.  His 
beard  and  hair  became  forests,  his  arms 
and  shoulders  cliffs,  his  head  a  summit,  and 

his  bones  rocks.    Each  part  increased  in  mass  till  the  giant  became 
the  mountain  upon  whose  shoulders  rests  heaven  with  all  its  stars. 

154.  Perseus  and  Andromeda.  On  his  way  back  to  Seriphus,  the 
Gorgon-slayer  arrived  at  the  country  of  the  ^Ethiopians,  over  whom 
Cepheus  was  king.    His  wife. was  Cassiopea  — 


Vie.  120.    Perseus  with 
Head  of  Medusa 


That  starred  ^■Ethiope  queen  that  strove 

To  set  her  beauty's  praise  above 

The  sea-nymphs,  and  their  powers  offended.^ 

These  nymphs  had  consequently  sent  a  sea  monster  to  ravage 
the  coast.    To  appease  the  deities,  Cepheus  was  directed  by  the 


1  Milton,  ]1  Penseroso,  1.  19. 


2  12 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


oracle  to  devote  his  daughter  Andromeda  to  the  ravening  maw 
of  the  prodigy.  As  Perseus  looked  down  from  his  aerial  height, 
he  beheld  the  virgin  chained  to  a  rock.  Drawing  nearer  he  pitied, 
then  comforted  her,  and  sought  the  reason  of  her  disgrace.  At 
first  from  modesty  she  was  silent ;  but  when  he  repeated  his  ques- 
tions, for  fear  she  might  be  thought  guilty  of  some  offense  which 
she  dared  not  tell,  she  disclosed  her  name  and  that  of  her  country-, 
and  her  mother's  pride  of  beauty.  Before  she  had  done  speaking,  a 
sound  was  heard  upon  the  water,  and  the  monster  appeared.  The  vir- 
gin shrieked  ;  the  father  and  mother,  who  had  now  arrived,  poured 


Perseus  finds  Andromeda 


forth  lamentations  and  threw  their  arms  about  the  victim.  But  the 
hero  himself  undertook  to  slay  the  monster,  on  condition  that,  if  the 
maiden  were  rescued  by  his  valor,  she  should  be  his  reward.  The 
parents  consented.    Perseus  embraced  his  promised  bride  ;  then  — 

Loosing  his  arms  from  her  waist  he  flew  upward,  awaiting  the  sea  beast. 
Onward  it  came  from  the  southward,  as  bulky  and  black  as  a  galley, 
Lazily  coasting  along,  as  the  fish  fled  leaping  before  it ; 
Lazily  breasting  the  ripple,  and  watching  by  sand  bar  and  headland. 
Listening  for  laughter  of  maidens  at  bleaching,  or  song  of  the  fisher, 
Children  at  play  on  the  pebbles,  or  cattle  that  passed  on  the  sand  hills. 
Rolling  and  dripping  it  came,  where  bedded  in  glistening  purple 
Cold  on  the  cold  seaweeds  lay  the  long  white  sides  of  the  maiden. 
Trembling,  her  face  in  her  hands,  and  her  tresses  afloat  on  the  water.^ 
1  From  Charles  Kingsley's  Andromeda. 


— --.^>. 


I 

) 

'.J 

PERSEUS   FREEING   ANDROMEDA 


OLDER  HEROES:  HOUSE  OF  DANAUS,  ETC.       213 

The  youth  darted  down  upon  the  back  of  the  monster  and 
plunged  his  sword  into  its  shoulder,  then  eluded  its  furious  attack 
by  means  of  his  wings.  Wherever  he  could  find  a  passage  for  his 
sword,  he  plunged  it  between  the  scales  of  flank  and  side.  The 
wings  of  the  hero  were  finally  drenched  and  unmanageable  with  the 
blood  and  water  that  the  brute  spouted.  Then  alighting  on  a  rock 
and  holding  by  a  projection,  he  gave  the  monster  his  deathblow. 

The  joyful  parents,  with  Perseus  and  Andromeda,  repaired  to 
the  palace,  where  a  banquet  was  opened  for  them.  But  in  the 
midst  of  the  festivities  a  noise  was  heard  of  warlike  clamor,  and 
Phineus,  who  had  formerly  been  betrothed  to  the  bride,  burst  in, 
demanding  her  for  his  own.  In  vain,  Cepheus  remonstrated  that 
all  such  engagements  had  been  dissolved  by  the  sentence  of  death 
passed  upon  Andromeda,  and  that  if  Phineus  had  actually  loved 
the  girl,  he  would  have  tried  to  rescue  her.  Phineus  and  his  adher- 
ents, persisting  in  their  intent,  attacked  the  wedding  party  and 
would  have  broken  it  up  with  most  admired  disorder,  but 

Mid  the  fabled  Libyan  bridal  stood 

Perseus  in  stern  tranquillity  of  wrath, 

Half  stood,  half  floated  on  his  ankle  plumes 

Out-swelling,  while  the  bright  face  on  his  shield 

Looked  into  stone  the  raging  fray.^ 

Leaving  Phineus  and  his  fellows  in  merited  petrifaction,  and  con- 
veying Andromeda  to  Seriphus,  the  hero  there  turned  into  stone 
Polydectes  and  his  court,  because  the  tyrant  had  rendered  Danae's  life 
intolerable  with  his  attentions.  Perseus  then  restored  to  their  owners 
the  charmed  helmet,  the  winged  shoes,  and  the  pouch  in  which  he 
had  conveyed  the  Gorgon's  head.  The  head  itself  he  bestowed  upon 
Minerva,  who  bore  it  afterward  upon  her  aegis  or  shield.  Of  that 
Gorgon  shield  no  simpler  moral  interpretation  can  be  framed  than 
the  following : 

What  was  that  snaky-headed  Gorgon  shield 
That  wise  Minerva  wore,  unconquered  virgin. 
Wherewith  she  freezed  her  foes  to  congealed  stone, 
But  rigid  looks  of  chaste  austerity, 
And  noble  grace  that  dashed  brute  violence 
With  sudden  adoration  and  blank  awe !  ^ 

1  Milman,  Samor.  ^  Milton,  Comus. 


2  14  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

With  his  mother  and  his  wife  Perseus  returned  to  Argos  to  seek 
his  grandfather.  But  Acrisius,  still  fearing  his  doom,  had  retired 
to  Larissa  in  Thessaly.  Thither  Perseus  followed  him/ and  found 
him  presiding  over  certain  funeral  games.  As  luck  would  have  it, 
the  hero  took  part  in  the  quoit  throwing,  and  hurled  a  quoit  far 
beyond  the  mark.  The  disk,  falling  upon  his  grandfather's  foot, 
brought  about  the  old  man's  death,  and  in  that  way  the  prophecy 
was  fulfilled.  Of  Perseus  and  Andromeda  three  sons  were  born, 
through  one  of  whom,  Electryon,  they  became  grandparents  of  the 
famous  Alcmene,  sweetheart  of  Jove  and  mother  of  Hercules.j 

155.  Bellerophon  and  the  Chimaera.^  The  horse  Pegasus,  which 
sprang  from  the  Gorgon's  blood,  found  a  master  in  Bellerophon  of 
Corinth.  This  youth  v^^as  of  the  Hellenic  branch  of  the  Greek 
nation,  being  descended  from  Sisyphus  and  through  him  from 
yEolus,  the  son  of  Hellen.^  His  adventures  should  therefore  be 
recited  with  those  of  Jason  and  other  descendants  of  yEolus  in  the 
next  chapter,  but  that  they  follow  so  closely  on  those  of  Perseus. 
His  father,  Glaucus,  king  of  Corinth,  is  frequently  identified  with 
Glaucus  the  fisherman.  This  Glaucus  of  Corinth  was  noted  for  his 
love  of  horse  racing,  his  fashion  of  feeding  his  mares  on  human 
flesh,  and  his  destruction  by  the  fuiy  of  his  horses ;  for  having 
upset  his  chariot,  they  tore  their  master  to  pieces.  As  to  his  son, 
Bellerophon,  the  following  is  related  : 

In  Lycia  a  monster,  breathing  fire,  made  great  havoc.  The 
fore  part  of  his  body  was  a  compound  of  the  lion  and  the  goat ; 
the  hind  part  was  a  dragon's.  The  king,  lobates,  sought  a  hero  to 
destroy  this  Chimasra,  as  it  was  called.  At  that  time  Bellerophon 
arrived  at  his  court.  The  gallant  youth  brought  letters  from 
Proetus,  the  son-in-law  of  lobates,  recommending  Bellerophon  in 
the  warmest  terms  as  an  unconquerable  hero,  but  adding  a  request 
to  his  father-in-law  to  put  him  to  death.  For  Proetus,  suspecting 
that  his  wife  Antea  looked  with  too  great  favor  on  the  young 
warrior,  schemed  thus  to  destory  him. 

lobates  accordingly  determined  to  send  Bellerophon  against 
the    Chimaera.     Bellerophon   accepted    the    proposal,   but   before 

1  Iliad,  6,  155-202  ;  Apollodorus,  i,  9,  §  3  ;  Horace,  Odes,  4  ;  zi ;  26. 
*  See  Commentary,  §§  103,  155. 


OLDER  HEROES:  HOUSE  OF  DANAUS,  ETC. 


215 


proceeding  to  the  combat,  consulted  the  soothsayer  Polyidus,  who 
counseled  him  to  procure,  if  possible,  the  horse  Pegasus  for  the 
conflict.  Now  this  horse  had  been  caught  and  tamed  by  Minerva 
and  by  her  presented  to  the  Muses.  Polyidus,  therefore,  directed 
Bellerophon  to  pass  the  night  in  the  temple  of  Minerva.  While  he 
slept,  Minerva  brought  him  a  golden  bridle.  When  he  awoke,  she 
showed  him  Pegasus  drinking  at  the  well  of  Pirene.  At  sight  of  the 
bridle,  the  winged  steed  came 
willingly  and  suffered  him- 
self to  be  taken.  Bellerophon 
mounted  him,  sped  through 
the  air,  found  the  Chimaera, 
and  gained  an  easy  victory. 

After  the  conquest  of  this 
monster,  Bellerophon  was  sub- 
jected to  further  trials  and 
labors  by  his  unfriendly  host, 
but  by  the  aid  of  Pegasus  he 
triumphed  over  all.  At  length 
lobates,  seeing  that  the  hero 
was  beloved  of  the  gods,  gave 
him  his  daughter  in  marriage 
and  made  him  his  successor 
on  the  throne.  It  is  said  that 
Bellerophon,  by  his  pride  and 
presumption,  drew  upon  himself 
the  anger  of  the  Olympians ; 
that  he  even  attempted  to  fly 
to  heaven  on  his  winged  steed  ; 

but  the  king  of  gods  and  men  sent  a  gadfly,  which,  stinging  Pegasus, 
caused  him  to  throw  his  rider,  who  wandered  ever  after  lame,  blind, 
and  lonely  through  the  Aleian  field,  and  perished  miserably, 

156.  Hercules  (Heracles) :  His  Youth. ^  Alcmene,  daughter  of 
Electryon  and   granddaughter  of   Perseus  and  Andromeda,  was 

1  Authorities  are  Homer,  ^  Iliad  and  Odyssey  ;  Theocritus  24  ;  25,  etc. ;  Apollodorus,  2, 
4,  §  7,  etc.;  Sophocles,  Women  of  Trachis ;  Euripides,  Hercules  Furens  ;  Ovid,  Metam.  9, 
102-272  ;  Seneca,  —  Hercules  Furens  and  CEtaeus  ;  Hyginus,  etc. 


Fig.  122.  Bellerophon  and  Pegasus 


2i6  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

beloved  of  Jupiter,  Their  son,  the  mighty  Hercules,  born  in 
Thebes,  became  the  national  hero  of  Greece.  Juno,  always  hostile 
to  the  offspring  of  her  husband  by  mortal  mothers,  declared  war 
against  Hercules  from  his  birth.  She  sent  two  serpents  to  destroy 
him  as  he  lay  in  his  cradle,  but  the  precocious  infant  strangled 
them  with  his  hands.  In  his  youth  he  passed  for  the  son  of  his  step- 
father Amphitryon,  king  of  Thebes,  grandson  of  Perseus  and 
Andromeda,  and  son  of  Alcasus.  Hence  his  patronymic,  Alcides. 
Rhadamanthus  trained  him  in  wisdom  and  virtue,  Linus  in  music. 
Unfortunately  the  latter  attempted  one  day  to  chastise  Hercules ; 
whereupon  the  pupil  killed  the  master  with  a  lute.  After  this  mel- 
ancholy breach  of  discipline,  the  youth  was  rusticated,  —  sent  off  to 
the  mountains,  where  among  the  herdsmen  and  the  cattle  he  grew 
to  mighty  stature,  slew  the  Thespian  lion,  and  performed  various 
deeds  of  valor.  To  him,  while  still  a  youth,  appeared,  according  to 
one  story,  two  women  at  a  meeting  of  the  ways,  —  Pleasure  and 
Duty.  The  gifts  offered  by  Duty  were  the  "  Choice  of  Hercules." 
Soon  afterward  he  contended  with  none  other  than  Apollo  for  the 
tripod  of  Delphi ;  but  reconciliation  was  effected  between  the  com- 
batants by  the  gods  of  Olympus,  and  from  that  day  forth  Apollo 
and  Hercules  remained  tnae  friends,  each  respecting  the  prowess 
of  the  other.  Returning  to  Thebes,  the  hero  aided  his  half  brother 
Iphicles  and  his  reputed  father  Amphitryon  in  throwing  off  the 
yoke  of  the  city  of  Orchomenus,  and  was  rewarded  with  the  hand 
of  the  princess  Megara.  A  few  years  later,  while  in  the  very  pride 
of  his  manhood,  he  was  driven  insane  by  the  implacable  Juno.  In 
his  madness  he  slew  his  children,  and  would  have  slain  Amphit- 
ryon, also,  had  not  Minerva  knocked  him  over  with  a  stone  and 
plunged  him  into  a  deep  sleep,  from  which  he  awoke  in  his  right 
mind.  Next,  for  expiation  of  the  bloodshed,  he  was  rendered  sub- 
ject to  his  cousin  Eurystheus  and  compelled  to  perform  his  com- 
mands.   This  humiliation,  Juno,  of  course,  had  decreed. 

157.  His  Labors.  Eurystheus  enjoined  upon  the  hero  a  succes- 
sion of  desperate  undertakings,  which  are  called  the  twelve  "  Labors 
of  Hercules."  The  .first  was  the  combat  with  the  lion  that  infested 
the  valley  of  Nemea,  the  skin  of  which  Hercules  was  ordered 
to  bring  to  Mycenae,    After  using  in  vain  his  club  and  arrows 


OLDER  HEROES:  HOUSE  OF  DANAUS,  ETC.   217 

against  the  lion,  Hercules  strangled  the  animal  with  his  hands 
and  returned,  ca.rr/'mg  its  carcass  on  his  shoulders  ;  but  Eurys- 
theus,  frightened  at  the  sight  and  at  this  proof  of  the  prodigious 
strength  of  the  hero,  ordered  him  to  deliver  the  account  of  his 

exploits,  in  future,  out- 
side the  town. 

His  second  labor 
was  the  slaughter  of 
the  Hydra,  a  water 
serpent  that  ravaged 
the  country  of  Argos 
and  dwelt  in  a  swamp 
near  the  well  of  Amy- 
mone.  It  had  nine 
heads,  of  which  the 
middle  one  was  im- 
mortal. Hercules  struck 
off  the  heads  with  his  club ;  but  in  the  place  of  each  dispatched, 
two  new  ones  appeared.  At  last,  with  the  assistance  of  his  faithful 
nephew  lolaiis,  he  burned  away  the  other  heads  of  the  Hydra  and 
buried  the  ninth,  which  was  immortal,  under  a  rock. 

His  third  labor  was  the  capture  of  a  boar  that  haunted  Mount 
Erymanthus  in  Arcadia.  The  adventure  was,  in  itself,  successful. 
But  on  the  same  jour- 
ney Hercules  made  the 
friendship  of  the  cen- 
taur Pholus,  who,  re- 
ceiving him  hospitably, 
poured  out  for  him 
without,  stint  the  choic- 
est wine  that  the  cen- 
taurs possessed.  As  a 
consequence,  Hercules 
became  involved   in   a 


Fig.  123.    Heracles  and  the  NeiMEAN  Lion- 


Fig.  124.    Heracles  and  the  Hydra 


broil  with  the  other  centaurs  of  the  mountain.  Unfortunately  his 
friend  Pholus,  drawing  one  of  the  arrows  of  Hercules  from  a  brother 
centaur,  wounded  himself  therewith  and  died  of  the  poison. 


2i; 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


The  fourth  labor  of  Hercules  was  the  capture  of  a  wonderful 
stag  of  golden  antlers  and  brazen  hoofs,  that  ranged  the  hills  of 
Cerynea,  between  Arcadia  and  Achaia. 

His  fifth  labor  was  the  destruction  of  the  Stymphalian  birds, 
which  with  cruel  beaks  and  sharp  talons  harassed  the  inhabitants 
of  the  valley  of  Stymphalus,  devouring  many  of  them. 

His  sixth  labor  was  the  cleaning  of  the  Augean  stables.  Augeas, 
king  of  Elis,  had  a  herd  of  three  thousand  oxen,  whose  stalls  had  not 
been  cleansed  for  thirty  years.  Hercules,  bringing  the  rivers  Alpheiis 
and  Peneiis  through  them,  purified  them  thoroughly  in  one  day. 


Fig.  125.    Heracles  bringing  Home  the  Boar 

His  seventh  labor  was  the  overthrow  of  the  Cretan  bull,  — an  awful 
but  beautiful  brute,  at  once  a  gift  and  a  curse  bestowed  by  Neptune 
upon  Minos  of  Crete. ^  This  monster  Hercules  brought  to  Mycenae. 

His  eighth  labor  was  the  removal  of  the  horses  of  Diomedes, 
king  of  Thrace.  These  horses  subsisted  on  human  flesh,  were 
swift  and  fearful.  Diomedes,  attempting  to  retain  them,  was  killed 
by  Hercules  and  given  to  the  horses  to  devour.  They  were  then 
delivered  to  Eurystheus  ;  but,  escaping,  they  roamed  the  hills  of 
Arcadia,  till  the  wild  beasts  of  Apollo  tore  them  to  pieces. 

His  ninth  labor  was  of  a  more  delicate  character.  Admeta,  the 
daughter  of  Eur}'Stheus,  desired  the  girdk  of  the  queen  of  the 

i§  172. 


OLDER  HEROES:  HOUSE  OF  DANAUS,  ETC.   2 19 

Amazons,  and  Eurystheus  ordered  Hercules  to  get  it.  The  Ama- 
zons were  a  nation  dominated  by  warlike  women,  and  in  their 
hands  were  many  cities.  It  was  their  custom  to  bring  up  only  the 
female  children,  whom  they  hardened  by  martial  discipline ;  the 
boys  were  either  dispatched  to  the  neighboring  nations  or  put  to 
death.  Hippolyta,  the  queen,  received  Hercules  kindly  and  con- 
sented to  yield  him  the  girdle  ;  but  Juno,  taking  the  form  of  an 
Amazon,  persuaded  the  people  that  the  strangers  were  carr\-ing  off 

their  queen.   They  instantly     ___^ 

armed  and  beset  the  ship. 
Whereupon  Hercules,  think- 
ing that  Hippolyta  had  acted 
treacherously,  slew  her  and, 
taking  her  girdle,  made  sail 
homeward. 

The  tenth  task  enjoined 
upon  him  was  to  capture 
for  Eurystheus  the  oxen 
of  Geryon,  a  monster  with 
three  bodies,  who  dwelt  in 
the  island  Erythea  (the 
red),  —  so  called  because 
it  lay  in  the  west,  under 
the  rays  of  the  setting  sun. 
This  description  is  thought 
to  apply  to  Spain,  of  which  Geryon  was  king.  After  traversing 
various  countries,  Hercules  reached  at  length  the  frontiers  of 
Libya  and  Europe,  where  he  raised  the  two  mountains  of  Abyla 
and  Calpe  as  monuments  of  his  progress,  —  the  Pillars  of  Her- 
cules ;  or,  according  to  another  account,  rent  one  mountain  into 
two  and  left  half  on  each  side,  forming  the  Strait  of  Gibraltar. 
The  oxen  were  guarded  by  the  giant  Eurytion  and  his  two-headed 
dog,  but  Hercules  killed  the  warders  and  conveyed  the  oxen  in 
safety  to  Eurystheus. 

One  of  the  most  difficult  labors  was  the  eleventh,  —  the  robbery 
of  the  golden  apples  of  the  Hesperides.  Hercules  did  not  know 
where  to  find  them  ;  but  after  various  adventures,  arrived  at  Mount 


Fig.  126.   Heracles  with  the  Bull 


220 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Atlas  in  Africa.  Since  Atlas  was  the  father  of  the  Hesperides, 
Hercules  thought  he  might  through  him  obtain  the  apples.  The 
hero,  accordingly,  taking  the  burden  of  the  heavens  on  his  own 
shoulders,!  sent  Atlas  to  seek  the  apples.  The  giant  returned  with 
them  and  proposed  to  take  them  himself  to  Eurystheus.  "  Even 
so,"  said  Hercules;  "but,  pray,  hold  this  load  for  me  a  moment, 
while  I  procure  a  pad  to  ease  my  shoulders."  Unsuspectingly  the 
giant  resumed  the  burden  of  the  heavens.  Hercules  took  the 
apples. 

His  twelfth  exploit  was  to  fetch  Cerberus  from  the  lower  world. 
To  this  end  he  descended  into  Hades,  accompanied  by  Mercury 

and  Minerva.  There 
he  obtained  permission 
from  Pluto  to  carry 
Cerberus  to  the  upper 
air,  provided  he  could 
do  it  without  the  use 
of  weapons.  In  spite 
of  the  monster's  strug- 
gling he  seized  him, 
held  him  fast,  carried 
him  to  Eurystheus,  and 
afterward  restored  him 
to  the  lower  regions.  While  in  Hades,  Hercules  also  obtained 
the  liberty  of  Theseus,  his  admirer  and  imitator,  who  had  been 
detained  there  for  an  attempt  at  abducting  Proserpine.^ 

After  his  return  from  Hades  to  his  native  Thebes,  he  re- 
nounced his  wife  Megara,  for,  having  slain  his  children  by  her  in 
his  fit  of  madness,  he  looked  upon  the  marriage  as  displeasing  to 
the  gods. 

Two  other  exploits  not  recorded  among  the  twelve  labors  are 
the  victories  over  Antaeus  and  Cacus.  Antaeus,  the  son  of  Poseidon 
and  Gaea,  was  a  giant  and  wrestler  whose  strength  was  invincible 
so  long  as  he  remained  in  contact  with  his  mother  Earth,  He 
compelled  all  strangers  who  came  to  his  country  to  wrestle  with 
him,  on  condition  that  if  conquered,  they  should   suffer  death. 


Fig   127     Heracles  and  Cerberus 


1  .A.tlas  and  the  heavens,  §  153. 


§  180. 


OLDER  HEROES:  HOUSE  OF  DANAUS,  ETC.   22  1 

Hercules  encountered  him  and,  finding  that  it  was  of  no  avail 
to  throw  him,  —  for  he  always  rose  with  renewed  strength  from 
every  fall,  —  lifted  him  up  from  the  earth  and  strangled  him  in 
the  air. 

Later  writers  tell  of  an  army  of  Pygmies  which,  finding  Her- 
cules asleep  after  his  defeat  of  Antaeus,  made  preparations  to 
attack  him,  as  if  they  were  about  to  attack  a  city.  But  the  hero, 
awakening,  laughed  at  the  little  warriors,  wrapped  some  of  them 
up  in  his  lion's  skin,  and  carried  them  to  Eurystheus. 

Cacus  was  a  giant  who  inhabited  a  cave  on  Mount  Aventine 
and  plundered  the  surrounding  country.  When  Hercules  was  driv- 
ing home  the  oxen  of  Geryon,  Cacus  stole  part  of  the  cattle  while 
the  hero  slept.  That  their  footprints  might  not  indicate  where 
they  had  been  driven,  _ 

he  dragged  them  back- 
ward by  their  tails  to  '  ^^ 
his  cave.  Hercules 
was  deceived  by  the 
stratagem   and    w^ould 

have  failed  to  find  his  .  v       .'' 

oxen,  had  it  not  hap- 
pened that  while  he  was 

driving  the  remainder 

-     ,        ,       ,  ,  Fig.  1 2b.    Heracles  and  Ant/eus 

01   the    herd  past  the 

cave  where  the  stolen  ones  were  concealed,  those  within,  beginning  to 

low,  discovered  themselves  to  him.    Hercules  promptly  dispatched 

the  thief. 

Through  most  of  these  expeditions  Hercules  was  attended  by 
lolaiis,  his  devoted  friend,  the  son  of  his  half  brother  Iphicles.' 

158.  His  Later  Exploits.  On  the  later  exploits  of  the  hero  we 
can  dwell  but  briefly.  Having,  in  a  fit  of  madness,  killed  his  friend 
Iphitus,  he  was  condemned  for  the  offense  to  spend  three  years  as 
the  slave  of  Queen  Omphale.  He  lived  effeminately,  wearing  at 
times  the  dress  of  a  woman  and  spinning  wool  with  the  hand- 
maidens of  Omphale,  while  the  queen  wore  his  lion's  skin.  But 
during  this  period  he  contrived  to  engage  in  about  as  many  adven- 
tures  as   would   fill   the   life   of  an  ordinary  hero.     He  rescued 


222  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Daphnis  from  Lityerses  and  threw  the  bloodthirsty  king^  into  the 
river  Maeander ;  he  discovered  the  body  of  Icarus ^  and  buried  it ; 
he  joined  the  company  of  Argonauts,  who  were  on  their  way  to 
Colchis  to  secure  the  golden  fleece,  and  he  captured  the  thievish 
gnomes,  called  Cercopes.  Two  of  these  grotesque  rascals  had 
made  off  with  the  weapons  of  Hercules  while  he  was  sleeping. 
When  he  had  caught  them  he  strapped  them,  knees  upward,  to  a 
yoke  and  so  bore  them  away.  Their  drollery,  however,  regained 
them  their  liberty.  It  is  said  that  some  of  them  having  once 
deceived  Jupiter  were  changed  to  apes. 

159.  The  Loss  of  Hylas.^  In  the  Argonautic  adventure  Her- 
cules was  attended  by  a  lad,  Hylas,  whom  he  tenderly  loved  and 
on  whose  account  he  deserted  the  expedition  in  Mysia ;  for  Hylas 
had  been  stolen  by  the  Naiads. 

.  .  .  Never  was  Heracles  apart  from  Hylas,  not  when  midnoon  was  high  in 
heaven,  not  when  Dawn  with  her  white  horses  speeds  upwards  to  the  dwelling 
of  Zeus,  not  when  the  twittering  nestlings  look  towards  the  perch,  while  their 
mother  flaps  her  wings  above  the  smoke-browned  beam ;  and  all  this  that  the 
lad  might  be  fashioned  to  his  mind,  and  might  drive  a  straight  furrow,  and 
come  to  the  true  measure  of  man.  .  .  . 

And  Hylas  of  the  yellow  hair,  with  a  vessel  of  bronze  in  his  hand,  went  to 
draw  water  against  supper-time  for  Heracles  himself  and  the  steadfast  Telamon, 
for  these  comrades  twain  supped  ever  at  one  table.  Soon  was  he  ware  of  a 
spring  in  a  hollow  land,  and  the  rushes  grew  thickly  round  it,  arid  dark  swailow- 
wort,  and  green  maidenhair,  and  blooming  parsley,  and  deer  grass  spreading 
through  the  marshy  land.  In  the  midst  of  the  water  the  nymphs  were  arranging 
their  dances,  —  the  sleepless  nymphs,  dread  goddesses  of  the  country  people, 
Eunice,  and  Mails,  and  Nycheia,  with  her  April  eyes.  And  now  the  boy  was 
holding  out  the  wide-mouthed  pitcher  to  the  water,  intent  on  dipping  it ;  but  the 
nymphs  all  clung  to  his  hand,  for  love  of  the  Argive  lad  had  fluttered  the  soft 
hearts  of  all  of  them.  Then  down  he  sank  into  the  black  water,  headlong  all, 
as  when  a  star  shoots  flaming  from  the  sky,  plumb  in  the  deep  it  falls ;  and  a 
mate  shouts  out  to  the  seamen,  "  Up  with  the  gear,  my  lads,  the  wind  is  fair 
for  sailing." 

Then  the  nymphs  held  the  weeping  boy  on  their  laps,  and  with  gentle  words 
were  striving  to  comfort  him.  But  the  son  of  Amphitryon  was  troubled  about  the 
lad,  and  went  forth,  carrying  his  bended  bow  in  Scythian  fashion,  and  the  club 
that  is  ever  grasped  in  his  right  hand.    Thrice  he  shouted,  "  Hylas !  "  as  loud  as 

^  §  '60.  ^^  m  3  Theocritus,  Idyl  XI 11  (Lang's  translation). 


OLDER  HEROES:  HOUSE  OF  DANAUS,  ETC.        223 

his  deep  throat  could  call,  and  thrice  again  the  boy  heard  him,  and  thrice  came 
his  voice  from  the  water,  and,  hard  by  though  he  was,  he  seemed  very  far  away. 
And  as  when  a  bearded  lion,  a  ravening  lion  on  the  hills,  hears  the  bleating  of 
a  fawn  afar  off  and  rushes  forth  from  his  lair  to  seize  it,  his  readiest  meal,  even 
so  the  mighty  Heracles,  in  longing  for  the  lad,  sped  through  the  trackless  briars 
and  r-anged  over  much  country. 

Reckless  are  lovers :  great  toils  did  Heracles  bear,  in  hills  and  thickets 
wandering ;  and  Jason's  quest  was  all  postponed  to  this.  .  .  . 

Thus  loveliest  Hylas  is  numbered  with  the  Blessed ;  but  for  a  runaway  they 
girded  at  Heracles  —  the  heroes  —  because  he  roamed  from  Argo  of  the  sixty 
oarsmen.    But  on  foot  he  came  to  Colchis  and  inhospitable  Phasis. 

160.  The  Rescue  of  Daphnis.^  Daphnis  was  the  ideal  Sicilian 
shepherd  and  to  him  was  ascribed  the  invention  of  pastoral  story 
and  song.  His  father  was  Hermes  (Mercury)  ;  his  mother,  a 
nymph  who  laid  him  when  an  infant  in  a  charming  valley  in  a 
laurel  grove  from  which  he  received  his  name,^  and  on  account  of 
which  Apollo  loved  him  and  endowed  him  with  the  gift  of  idyllic 
verse.  He  was  brought  up  by  nymphs  and  shepherds,  and,  avoiding 
the  noisy  haunts  of  men,  he  tended  his  flocks  on  Mount  yEtna, 
winter  and  summer.  He  loved  a  maiden  named  Piplea,  but  she 
was  borne  away  by  robbers.  He  followed  them  to  Phrygia,  and 
there  found  his  sweetheart  in  the  power  of  the  king  of  that  realm, 
Lityerses.  This  Lityerses  had  a  pleasant  custom  of  making  stran- 
gers try  a  contest  with  him  in  reaping  corn.  If  he  overcame  them, 
he  cut  off  their  heads  in  the  evening  and  concealed  their  bodies  in 
the  sheaves,  singing  a  comfortable  song  meanwhile.  In  order  to 
win  back  Piplea,  Daphnis  entered  upon  the  reaping  contest  with 
the  king  and  made  himself  comfortable,  too,  by  singing  a  harvest 
song  meanwhile.  But  Lityerses  surpassed  him  at  the  work  and 
was  about  to  put  him  to  death,  singing  no  doubt  a  comfortable 
song  of  the  reaper.  Death,  meanwhile,  —  when  suddenly  Hercules 
appeared  upon  the.  scene.  He  does  n't  seem  to  have  spent  much 
time  singing :  he  assured  Daphnis  of  his  head  by  cutting  off  that 
of  the  pleasant  king ;  and  then  he  threw  the  body  into  the  river 
Maeander.  Daphnis  regained  his  Piplea  and  one  would  suppose 
that  they  lived  happy  ever  after.    Another  story,  unfortunately, 

1  Theocritus,  Idyl  X,  41,  and  the  Scholia;  Virgil,  Bucol.  5  ;  8;  10;  and  Comments. 

2  See  the  story  of  Daphne. 


2  24  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

relates  events  in  which  Piplea's  name  does  not  occur.  A  Naiad 
fell  in  love  with  the  handsome  shepherd  and  made  him  promise 
eternal  fidelity  to  her,  threatening  him  with  blindness  if  he  violated 
his  vow.  It  was  hard  for  poor  Daphnis,  for  nearly  every  lass  he 
met  made  love  to  him.  At  last  a  princess  intoxicated  him  and 
he  forgot  his  vow.  Immediately  the  Naiad  showed  the  quality  of 
her  love  by  striking  him  blind.  He  consoled  himself  for  a  while 
by  singing  his  songs  and  playing  the  flute  as  he  wandered  from 
place  to  place.  Then  weary,  he  called  on  his  father  for  aid.  Mer- 
cury accordingly  transported  him  to  heaven  and  caused  a  well  to 
gush  forth  on  the  spot  from  which  he  ascended.  Here  the  Sicil- 
ians offered  yearly  sacrifice  in  his  honor. 

Theocritus  gives  us  a  Lityerses  song  as  he  undoubtedly  used  to 
hear  it  sung  by  the  harvesters  of  the  countryside  in  Sicily  :  ^ 

Demeter,  rich  in  fruit  and  rich  in  grain,  may  this  corn  be  easy  to  win  and 
fruitful  exceedingly ! 

Bind,  ye  binders,  the  sheaves,  lest  the  wayfarer  should  cry,  "  Men  of  straw 
were  the  workers  here ;  aye,  and  their  hire  was  wasted !  " 

See  that  the  cut  stubble  faces  the  North  wind,  or  the  West ;  —  't  is  thus  that 
the  grain  waxes  richest. 

They  that  thresh  corn  should  shun  the  noonday  sleep ;  at  noon  the  chaff 
parts  easiest  from  the  straw. 

As  for  the  reapers,  let  them  begin  when  the  crested  lark  is  waking,  and  cease 
when  he  sleeps,  but  take  holiday  in  the  heat. 

Lads,  the  frog  has  a  jolly  life :  he  is  not  cumbered  about  a  butler  to  his 
drink ;  for  he  has  liquor  by  him  unstinted  !    ' 

Boil  the  lentils  better,  thou  miserly  steward ;  take  heed  lest  thou  chop  thy 
fingers,  when  thou  'rt  splitting  cummin  seed. 

When  Matthew  Arnold  is  writing  of  the  death  of  his  dear  friend, 
the  poet,  Arthur  Hugh  Clough,  who  died  in  Italy,^  he  says : 

And  now  in  happier  air. 
Wandering  with  the  great  Mother's  train  divine  .  .  . 
Within  a  folding  of  the  Apennine, 

Thou  hearest  the  immortal  chants  of  old ! 
Putting  his  sickle  to  the  perilous  grain 
In  the  hot  cornfield  of  the  Phrygian  kirg, 
1  Theocritus,  Idyl  X  (Lang's  translation).  2  Thyrsis. 


OLDER  HEROES:  HOUSE  OF  DANAUS,  ETC.       225 

For  thee  the  Lityerses  song  again 

Young  Daphnis  with  his  silver  voice  doth  sing ; 
Sings  his  Sicilian  fold, 

His  sheep,  his  hapless  love,  his  blinded  eyes :  — 
And  how  a  call  celestial  round  him  rang, 
And  heavenward  from  the  fountain-brink  he  sprang,  — 

And  all  the  marvel  of  the  golden  skies ! 

161.  The  Expedition  against  Laomedon.  After  his  servitude 
under  Omphale  was  ended,  Hercules  sailed  with  eighteen  ships 
against  Troy.  For  Laomedon,  king  of  that  realm,  had  refused  to 
give  Hercules  the  horses  of  Neptune,  which  he  had  promised  in 
gratitude  for  the  rescue  of  his  daughter  Hesione  from  the  sea- 
monster. ^  The  hero,  overcoming  Troy,  placed  a  son  of  Laomedon, 
Priam,  upon  the  throne,  and  gave  Hesione  to  Telamon,  who,  with 
Peleus,  Oicles,  and  other  Greek  heroes,  had  accompanied  him. 
Also  worthy  of  mention  among  the  exploits  of  Hercules  were  his 
successful  expeditions  against  Pylos  and  Sparta,  his  victory  over 
the  giants,  his  struggle  with  Death  for  the  body  and  life  of 
Alcestis,^  and  his  delivery,  according  to  prophecy,  of  Prometheus, 
who  until  that  time  had  remained  in  chains  upon  the  Caucasian 
Mountains.^ 

162.  The  Death  of  Hercules.  Finally,  the  hero  married  Dejanira, 
daughter  of  Q^neus  of  Calydon  and  sister  of  Meleager  of  the 
^alydonian  hunt.  With  her  he  lived  three  prosperous  years.  But 
on  one  occasion,  as  they  journeyed  together,  they  came  to  a  river 
across  which  the  centaur  Nessus  carried  travelers  for  a  stated  fee. 
Hercules  proceeded  to  ford  the  river  and  gave  Dejanira  to  Nessus 
to  be  carried  across.  Nessus,  however,  attempted  to  make  off  with 
her  ;  whereupon  Hercules,  hearing  her  cries,  shot  an  arrow  into  his 
heart.  The  centaur,  as  he  died,  bade  Dejanira  take  a  portion  of  his 
blood  and  keep  it,  saying  that  it  might  be  used  as  a  charm  to  pre- 
serve the  love  of  her  husband.  Dejanira  did  so.  Before  long, 
jealous  of  Hercules'  fondness  for  lole  of  CEchalia,  a  captive  maiden, 
she  steeped  a  sacrificial  robe  of  her  husband's  in  the  blood  of 
Nessus.  As  soon  as  the  garment  became  warm  on  the  body  of 
Hercules,  the  poison  penetrated  his  limbs.    In  his  frenzy  he  seized 

l§ii9.  2  §83.  8  §,5. 


226 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Lichas,  who  had  brought  him  the  fatal  robe,  and  hurled  him  into 
the  sea ;  then  tried  to  wrench  off  the  garment,  but  it  stuck  to  his 
flesh  and  tore  away  whole  pieces  of  his  body. 


Fig.  129.    Hercules  and  Nessus 

Alcides,  from  Qichalia  crowned 

With  conquest,  felt  the  envenomed  robe,  and  tore, 

Through  pain,  up  by  the  roots  Thessalian  pines, 

And  Lichas  from  the  top  of  CEta  threw 

Into  the  Euboic  Sea.^ 

1  Milton. 


OLDER  HEROES:  HOUSE  OF  DANADS,  ETC.       227 

In  this  state  he  embarked  on  board  a  ship  and  was  conveyed  home. 
Dejanira,  on  seeing  what  she  had  unwittingly  done,  hanged  herself. 
Hercules,  prepared  to  die,  ascended  Mount  CEta,  where  he  built  a 
funeral  pile  of  trees,  gave  his  bovv^jid_an:ows  tq^Philoctetes,^  and 
laid  himself  upon  the  pile,  his  head  resting  on  his  club  and  his 
lion's  skin  spread  over  him.  With  a  countenance  as  serene  as  if 
he  were  taking  his  place  at  a  festal  board,  he  commanded  Philoc- 
tetes  to  apply  the  torch.  The  flames  spread  apace,  and  soon  in- 
vested the  whole  mass.^ 

The  gods  themselves  grieved  to  see  the  champion  of  the  earth 
so  brought  to  his  end.  But  Jupiter  took  care  that  only  his  mother's 
part  in  him  should  perish  by  the  flames.  The  immortal  element, 
derived  from  Jupiter  himself,  was  translated  to  heaven  ;  and  by 
the  consent  of  the  gods  —  even  of  reluctant  Juno  —  Hercules  was 
admitted  as  a  deity  to  the  ranks  of  the  immortals.  The  white- 
armed  queen  of  heaven  was  finally  reconciled  to  the  offspring  of 
Alcmene.  She  adopted  him  for  her  son  and  gave  him  in  marriage 
her  daughter  Hebe. 

Deep,  degraded  to  a  coward's  slave, 
Endless  contests  bore  Alcides  brave, 
Through  the  thorny  path  of  suffering  led ; 
Slew  the  Hydra,  crushed  the  lion's  might, 
Threw  himself,  to  bring  his  friend  to  light. 
Living,  in  the  skiff  that  bears  the  dead. 
All  the  torments,  every  toil  of  earth, 
Juno's  hatred  on  him  could  impose, 
Well  he  bore  them,  from  his  fated  birth 
To  life's  grandly  mournful  close. 

Till  the  god,  the  earthly  part  forsaken, 
From  the  man  in  flames  asunder  taken. 
Drank  the  heavenly  ether's  purer  breath. 
Joyous  in  the  new  unwonted  lightness, 
Soared  he  upwards  to  celestial  brightness. 
Earth's  dark  heavy  burden  lost  in  death. 
High  Olympus  gives  harmonious  greeting 

'  See  §  220.    According  to  Sophocles,  Philoctetes'  father  Pccas  applied  the  torch. 
*  See  the  spirited  poems,  Dei'aneira  and  Herakles,  in  the  classical,  but  too  little  read, 
Epic  of  Hades,  by  Lewis  Morris. 


2  28  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

To  the  hall  where  reigns  his  sire  adored ; 
Youth's  bright  goddess,  with  a  blush  at  meeting, 
Gives  the  nectar  to  her  lord.^ 

In  the  tragedy  called  The  Maidens  of  Trachis,  Sophocles  de- 
scribes this  hero  as  "  The  noblest  man  of  all  the  earth,  of  whom 
thou  ne'er  shalt  see  the  like  again,"  To  some  of  us  the  manner 
of  his  earthly  end  may  seem  unworthy  ;  but  the  Greek  poets  teach 
that,  in  the  unabated  vigor  of  one's  powers,  serenely  to  meet  and 
accept  one's  doom  is  the  happiest  death.  This  view  is  well  ex- 
pressed by  Matthew  Arnold  in  the  following  fragment  of  a  Greek 
chorus  sung  with  reference  to  the  death  of  Hercules  : 

O  frivolous  mind  of  man, 

Light  ignorance,  and  hurrying,  unsure  thoughts  ! 
Though  man  bewails  you  not. 
How  /  bewail  you  !  .   .  . 

For  you  will  not  put  on 

New  hearts  with  the  inquirer's  holy  robe, 

And  purged,  considerate  minds. 

And  him  on  whom,  at  the  end 

Of  toil  and  dolor  untold, 

The  Gods  have  said  that  repose 

At  last  shall  descend  undisturb'd  — 

Him  you  expect  to  behold 

In  an  easy  old  age,  in  a  happy  home; 

No  end  but  this  you  praise. 

But  him,  on  whom,  in  the  prime 

Of  life,  with  vigor  undimm'd. 

With  unspent  mind,  and  a  soul 

Unworn,  undebased,  undecay'd. 

Mournfully  grating,  the  gates 

Of  the  city  of  death  have  forever  closed  — 

Hbn,  L  count  him^  well-starr'd.^ 

Here  we  take  leave  for  a  time  of  the  descendants  of  Inachus. 
We  shall  revert  to  them  in  the  stories  of  Minos  of  Crete  and  of 
the  house  of  Labdacus. 

1  Schiller's  Ideal  and  Life.    Translated  by  .S.  G.  Bulfinch,  brother  of  Thomas  Bulfinch, 

2  From  Fragment  of  Chorus  of  a  "  Dejaneira."  > 


c 


Fig.  130.   The  Building  of  the  Argo 


CHAPTER  XV 


THE  FAMILY  OF  ^OLUS 


163.  Descendants  of  Deucalion.  Athamas,  brother  of  Sisyphus, 
was  descended  from  vEolus,  whose  father,  Hellen,  was  the  son  of 
Deucahon  of  Thessaly.  Athamas  had  by  his  wife  Nephele  two  ^ 
children,  Phrixus  and  Helle.  After  a  time,  growing  indifferent  to  (-^ 
his  wife,  Athamas  put  her  away  and  took  Inp,  the  daughter  of 
Cadmus.  The  unfortunate  sequel  Cf  this  second  marriage  we  have 
already  seen.^ 

Nephele,  apprehending  danger  to  her  children  from  the  influ- 
ence of  their  stepmother,  took  measures  to  put  them  out  of  her 
reach.  Mercury  gave  her  a  ram  with  a  golden  fleece,  on  which  she 
set  the  two  children.  Vaulting  into  the  air,  the  animal  took  his 
course  to  the  east ;  but  when  he  was  crossing  the  strait  that  divides 
Europe  and  Asia,  the  girl  Helle  fell  from  his  back  into  the  sea, 
which  from  her  was  afterward  called  the  Hellespont  —  now  the 
Dardanelles.    The  ram  safely  landed  the  boy  Phrixus  in  Colchis, 

^  §  144- 

zag 


230  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

where  he  was  hospitably  received  by  yEetes,  the  king  of  that  coun- 
try. Phrixus  sacrificed  the  ram  to  Jupiter,  but  the  fleece  he  gave 
to  yEetes,  who  placed  it  in  a  consecrated  grove  under  the  care  of 
a  sleepless  dragon. ^ 

164.  The  Quest  of  the  Golden  Fleece.^  Another  realm  in  Thes- 
saly,  near  to  that  of  Athamas,  was  ruled  over  by  his  nephew  yEson. 
yEson,  although  he  had  a  son  Jason,  surrendered  the  crown  to  a 
half  brother,  Pelias,^  on  condition  that  he  should  hold  it  only  dur- 
ing the  minority  of  the  lad.  This  young  Jason  was,  by  the  way,  a 
second  cousin  of  Bellerophon  and  of  the  Atalanta  who  ran  against 
Ilippomenes,  and  a  first  cousin,pf  Admetus,  the  husband  of  Alcestis.^ 
When,  how'ever,  Jason,  being  grown  up,  came  to  demand  the  crow^n, 
his  uncle  Pelias  with  wily  intent  suggested  to  him  the  glorious 
quest  of  the  golden  fleece.  Jason,  pleased  with  the  thought,  forth- 
with made  preparations  for  the  expedition.  At  that  time  the  only 
species  of  navigation  known  to  the  Greeks  consisted  of  small  boats 
or  canoes  hollowed  out  from  trunks  of  trees  ;  when,  accordingly, 
Jason  employed  Argus  to  build  a  vessel  capable  of  containing  fifty 
men,  it  was  considered  a  gigantic  undertaking.  The  vessel  was 
named  Ar^o,  probably  after  its  builder.  Jason  soon  found  himself 
at  the  head  of  a  bold  band  of  comrades,  many  of  whom  afterward 
were  renowned  among  the  heroes  and  demigods  of  Greece. 

From  every  region  of  JEgea's  shore 
The  brave  assembled ;  those  illustrious  twins 
Castor  and  Pollux ;   Orpheus,  tuneful  bard ; 
Zetes  and  Calais,  as  the  wind  in  speed ; 
Strong  Hercules  and  many  a  chief  renowned. 
On  deep  lolcos'  sandy  shore  they  thronged, 
Gleaming  in  armor,  ardent  of  exploits,  — 
And  soon,  the  laurel  cord  and  the  huge  stone 
Uplifting  to  the  deck,  unmoored  the  bark ; 
Whose  keel  of  wondrous  length  the  skillful  hand 
Of  Argus  fashioned  for  the  proud  attempt ; 
And  in  the  extended  keel  a  lofty  mast 
Upraised,  and  sails  full  swelling ;  to  the  chiefs 
Unwonted  objects.    Now  first,  now  they  learned 

1  ApoUodorus,  i,  9,  §  i  ;  Apollonius  Rhodius,  i,  927. 

2  Ovid,  Metani.  6,667  ;  7,  '43-   The  Argonautica  of  Apollonius  of  Rhodes. 
*  See  §  120.  ■•  See  Table  G,  Commentary,  §  103. 


THE  FAMILY  OF  ^OLUS 


2^11 


Their  bolder  steerage  over  ocean  wave, 
Led  by  the  golden  stars,  as  Chiron's  artA     :'.,<, 
Had  marked  the  sphere  celestial^, >'  .».-  K^ 
'i  <      ^  i 
Theseus,  Meleager,  Peleus,  and  Nestor'were  also  among  these 

Argonauts,  or  sailors  of  the  Argo.  The  ship  with  her  crew  of 
heroes  left  the  shores  of  Thessaly,  and  touching  at  the  island  of 
Lernnos,  thence  crossed  to  Mysia  and  thence  to  Thrace.  Here 
they  found  the  sage  Phineus,  who  instructed  the  Argonauts  how 
they  might  pass  the  Symplegades,  or  Clashing  Islands,  at  the 
entrance  of  the  Euxine  Sea.  When  they  reached  these  islands 
they,  accordingly,  let  go  a  dove,  which  took  her  way  between  the 


Fig.  131.  Jason  conquers  the  Uulls  and  steals  the  Fleece 

rocks  and  passed  in  safety,  only  losing  some  feathers  of  her  tail. 
Jason  and  his  men,  seizing  the  favorable  moment  of  the  rebound, 
plied  their  oars  with  vigor  and  passed  safe  through,  though  the 
islands  closed  behind  them  and  actually  grazed  the  stern  of  the  ves- 
sel. They  then  rowed  along  the  shore  till  they  arrived  at  the  eastern 
end  of  the  sea,  and  so  landed  in  the  kingdom  of  Colchis. 

Jason  made  known  his  message  to  the  Colchian  king,  y^Eetes, 
who  consented  to  give  up  the  golden  fleece  on  certain  conditions, 
namely,  that  Jason  should  j^oke  to  the  plow  two  fire-breathing 
bulls_with  brazen  feet,  and  that  he  then  should  sow  the  teeth  of 
the  dragon  that  Cadmus  had  slain.  Jason,  although  it  was  well 
known  that  a  crop  of  armed  men  would  spring  up  from  the  teeth, 
destined  to  turn  their  weapons  against  their  producer,  accepted 
the  conditions,  and  a  time  was  set  for  the  undertaking.   The  hero, 

1  Dver,  The  Fleece. 


232  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

however,  wisely  spent  the  interval  in  wooing  Medea,  the  daughter 
of  ^etes ;  and  with  such  success  that  they  plighted  troth  before 
the  altar  of  Hecate.  The  princess  then  furnished  her  hero  with  a 
charm  which  should  aid  him  in  the  contest  to  come. 

Accordingly,  when  the  momentous  day  was  arrived,  Jason  with 
calmness  encountered  the  fire-breathing  monsters  and  speedily 
yoked  them  to  the  plow.  The  Colchians  stood  in  amazement ; 
the  Greeks  shouted  for  joy.  Next,  the  hero  proceeded  to  sow  the 
dragon's  teeth  and  plow  them  in.  Up  sprang,  according  to  pre- 
diction, the  crop  of  armed  men,  brandished  aloft  their  weapons, 
and  rushed  upon  Jason.  The  Greeks  trembled  for  their  hero. 
Medea  herself  grew  pale  with  fear.  The  hero  himself  for  a  time, 
with  sword  and  shield,  kept  his  assailants  at  bay ;  but  he  surely 
would  have  been  overwhelmed  by  the  numbers,  had  he  not  resorted 
to  a  charm  which  Medea  had  taught  him  :  seizing  a  stone,  he  threw 
it  in  the  midst  of  his  foes.  Immediately  they  turned  their  arms 
against  one  another,  and  soon  there  was  not  one  of  the  dragon's 
brood  alive. 

It  remained  only  to  lull  to  sleep  the  dragon  that  guarded  the 
fleece.  This  was  done  by  scattering  over  him  a  few  drops  of  a 
preparation  which,  again,  Medea  had  supplied.  Jason  then  seized 
the  fleece,  and,  with  his  friends  and  his  sweetheart  accompanying, 
hastened  to  the  vessel.  It  is  said  that,  in  order  to  delay  the  pur- 
suit of  her  father  ^etes,  Medea  tore  to  pieces  her  young  brother 
Absyrtus  and  strewed  fragments  of  him  along  the  line  of  their 
flight.    The  ruse  succeeded. 

165.  The  Return  of  the  Argonauts.  On  their  way  home  the 
Argonauts  beat  a  devious  course,  sailing  after  other  dangers  had 
been  overcome,  by  the  island  that  the  Sirens  infested.  And  here 
the  heroes  would  have  hung  their  halsers  and  remained,  had  not 
Orpheus  vanquished  the  seductive  strains  of  the  sea-muses  with  his 
own  more  melodious  and  persuasive  song.^ 

Oh,  happy  seafarers  are  ye 

And  surely  all  your  ills  are  past, 
And  toil  upon  the  land  and  sea, 

Since  ye  are  brought  to  us  at  last ; 

1  William  Morris,  Life  and  Death  of  Jason. 


THE  FAMILY  OF  ^OLUS  233 

chanted  the  Sirens,  promising  long  rest  and  the  kingdoms  of  sleep. 

But  now,  but  now,  when  ye  have  lain 

Asleep  with  us  a  little  while 
Beneath  the  washing  of  the  main, 

How  calm  shall  be  your  waking  smile ! 

Then  Orpheus  replied,  encouraging  his  men  : 

A  little  more,  a  little  more, 

O  carriers  of  the  Golden  Fleece ! 
A  little  labor  with  the  oar, 

Before  we  reach  the  land  of  Greece. 

E'en  no\v,  perchance,  faint  rumors  reach 

Men's  ears  of  this  our  victory. 
And  draw  them  down  upon  the  beach 

To  gaze  across  the  empty  sea. 

Again  the  Sirens  : 

Alas  !  and  will  ye  stop  your  ears, 

In  vain  desire  to  do  aught, 
And  wish  to  live  'mid  cares  and  fears, 

Until  the  last  fear  makes  you  nought? 

But  Orpheus,  reminding  the  rowers  of  home  and  love  and  joy  : 

Is  not  the  May-time  now  on  earth, 

When  close  against  the  city  wall 
The  folks  are  singing  in  their  mirth. 

While  on  their  heads  the  May  flowers  fall? 

carried  them  past  triumphant 

The  Argonauts  arrived  safe  in  Thessaly.  Jason  delivered  the 
fleece  to  Pelias,  and  dedicated  the  Argo  to  Neptune. 

166.  Medea  and  ^son.^  Medea's  career  as  a  sorceress  was,  by 
no  means,  completed.  At  Jason's  request  she  undertook  next  to 
restore  his  aged  father  ^son  to  the  vigor  of  youth.  To_  the  full 
moon  she  addressed  her  incantations,  to  the  stars,  to  Hecate,  to 
Tellus,  the  goddess  of  the  earth.  In  a  chariot  borne  aloft  by 
dragons  she  traversed  the  fields  of  air  to  regions  where  flourished 
potent  plants,  which  only  she  knew  how  to  select.    Nine  nights 

1  Ovid,  Metam.  7,  143-293. 


2  34 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


she  employed  in  her  search,  and  during  that  period  shunned  all 
intercourse  with  mortals. 

Next  she  erected  two  altars,  the  one  to  Hecate,  the  other  to 
Hebe,  and  sacrificed  a  black  sheep,  —  pouring  libations  of  milk 
and  wine.  She  implored  Pluto  and  his  stolen  bride  to  spare  the 
old  man's  life.  Then  she  directed  that  /Eson  be  led  forth  ;  and 
throwing  him  into  a  deep  sleep,  she  laid  him 
on  a  bed  of  herbs,  like  one  dead.  No  eye  pro- 
fane looked  upon  her  mysteries.  With  stream- 
ing hair  thrice  she  moved  round  the  altars, 
dipped  flaming  twigs  in  the  blood,  and  laid 
them  thereon  to  burn.  Meanwhile,  the  caldron 
with  its  contents  was  preparing.  In  it  she  put 
magic  herbs,  with  seeds  and  flowers  of  acrid 
juice,  stones  from  the  distant  East,  and  sand 
from  the  shore  of  all-surrounding  ocean,  hoar- 
frost gathered  by  moonlight,  a  screech  owl's 
head  and  wings,  and  the  entrails  of  a  wolf. 
She  added  fragments  of  the  shells  of  tortoises 
and  the  liver  of  stags  —  animals  tenacious  of 
life  —  and  the  head  and  beak  of  a  crow,  which 
outlives  nine  generations  of  men.  These,  with 
many  other  things  "  without  a  name,"  she 
boiled  together  for  her  purposed  work,  stirring 
them  with  a  dr)'  olive  branch.  The  branch, 
when  taken  out,  instantly  was  green  and  ere- 
long was  covered  with  leaves  and  a  plentiful 
growth  of  young  olives ;  and  as  the  liquor 
boiled  and  bubbled  and  sometimes  bubbled  over,  the  grass  wher- 
ever the  sprinklings  fell  leaped  into  verdure  like  that  of  spring. 

Seeing  that  all  was  ready,  Medea  cut  the  throat  of  the  old  man, 
let  out  his  blood,  and  poured  into  his  mouth  and  his  wound  the 
juices  of  her  caldron.  As  soon  as  he  had  completely  imbibed  them, 
his  hair  and  beard  lost  their  whiteness  and  assumed  the  color  of 
youth ;  his  paleness  and  emaciation  were  gone ;  his  veins  were 
full  of  blood,  his  limbs  of  vigor  and  robustness ;  and  -^son,  on 
awakening,  found  himself  forty  years  younger. 


Fig.  132.    Medea 


THE  FAMILY  OF  ^OLUS 


235 


167.  Pelias.i  In  another  instance,  Medea  made  her  arts  the 
instrument  of  revenge.  PeHas,  the  usurping  uncle  of  Jason,  still 
kept  him  out  of  his  heritage.  But  the  daughters  of  Pelias  wished 
Medea  to  restore  their  father  also  to  youth.  Medea  simulated 
consent,  but  prepared  her  caldron  for  him  in  a  new  and  sin- 
gular way.  She  put  in  only  water  and  a  few  simple  herbs. 
In  the  night  she  persuaded  the  daughters  of  Pelias  to  kill  him. 
They  at  first  hesitated  to  strike,  but  Medea  chiding  their  irreso- 
lution, they  turned  away 
their  faces  and,  giving 
random  blows,  smote  him 
with  their  weapons.  Start- 
ing from  his  sleep,  the 
old  man  cried  out,  "  My 
daughters,  would  you  kill 
your  father.?"  Whereat 
their  hearts  failed  them, 
and  the  weapons  fell  from 
their  hands.  Medea,  how- 
ever, struck  the  fatal  blow. 

They  placed  him  in  the 
caldron,  but,  as  might  be 
expected,  with  no  success. 
Medea  herself  had  taken 
care  to  escape  before  they 
discovered  the  treachery. 
She  had,  however,  little 
profit  of  the  fruits  of  her  crime.  Jason,  for  whom  she  had  sacri- 
ficed so  much,  put  her  away,  for  he  wished  to  marry  Creiisa,  prin- 
cess of  Corinth.  Whereupon  Medea,  enraged  at  his  ingratitude, 
called  on  the  gods  for  vengeance  ;  then,  sending  a  poisoned  robe 
as  a  gift  to  the  bride,  killing  her  own  children,  and  setting  fire 
to  the  palace,  she  mounted  her  serpent-drawn  chariot  and  fled  to 
Athens.  There  she  married  King  ^Egeus,  the  father  of  Theseus  ; 
and  we  shall  meet  her  again  when  we  come  to  the  adventures  of 
that  hero.^ 


Fig.  133.  Medea  and  Daughters  of  Pelias 


1  Ovid,  Metam.  7,  297-353. 


2  §176 


236  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

The  incantation  of  Medea  readily  suggests  that  of  the  witches 
in  Macbeth  : 

Round  about  the  caldron  go ; 

In  the  poison'd  entrails  throw.  — 

Toad,  that  under  cold  stone 

Days  and  nights  has  thirty-one 

Swelter'd  venom  sleeping  got, 

Boil  thou  first  i'  the  charmed  pot.  .  .  = 

Fillet  of  a  fenny  snake 

In  the  caldron  boil  and  bake ; 

Eye  of  newt  and  toe  of  frog, 

Wool  of  bat  and  tongue  of  dog, 

Adder's  fork  and  blind-worm's  sting, 

Lizard's  leg  and  howlet's  wing,  — 

For  a  charm  of  powerful  trouble 

Like  a  hell-broth  boil  and  bubble.  .  .  , 

Scale  of  dragon,  tooth  of  wolf, 

Witches'  mummy,  maw  and  gulf 

Of  the  ravin'd  salt-sea  shark. 

Root  of  hemlock  digged  i'  the  dark.  , 

Make  the  gruel  thick  and  slab.^ 

1  Macbeth,  IV,  i.   Consult 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  FAMILY  OF  ^TOLUS  AND  ITS  CONNECTIONS 

168.  The  Calydonian  Hunt.i  One  of  the  heroes  of  the  Argo- 
nautic  expedition  had  been  Meleager,  a  son  of  GEneus  and  Althaea, 
rulers  of  Calydon  in  yEtolia,  His  parents  were  cousins,  descended 
from  a  son  of  Endymion  named  yEtolus,  who  had  colonized  that 
realm.  By  ties  of  kinship  and  marriage  they  were  allied  with  many 
historic  figures.  Their  daughter  Dejanira  had  become,  as  we  have 
already  noted,  the  wife  of  Hercules  ;  while  Leda,  the  sister  of 
Althaea,  was  mother  of  Castor  and  Pollux,^  and  of  Clytemnestra 
and  Helen,  intimately  concerned  in  the  Trojan  War, 

When  her  son  Meleager  was  born,  Althaea  had  beheld  the  three 
Destinies,  who,  as  they  spun  their  fatal  thread,  foretold  that  the 
life  of  the  child  should  last  no  longer  than  a  certain  brand  then 
burning  upon  the  hearth.  Althaea  seized  and  quenched  the  brand, 
and  carefully  preserved  it  while  Meleager  grew  to  boyhood,  youth, 
and  man's  estate.  It  chanced,  then,  that  QEneus,  offering  sacrifices 
to  the  gods,  omitted  to  pay  due  honors  to  Diana  ;  wherefore  she, 
indignant  at  the  neglect,  sent  a  boar  of  enormous  size  to  lay  waste 
the  fields  of  ^alydon.  Meleager  called  on  the  heroes  of  Greece 
to  join  in  a  hunt  for  the  ravenous  monster.  Tjieseus  and  his  friend 
Pirithoiis,^  Jason,  Peleus  the  father  of  Achilles,  Telamon  the  father 
of  Ajax,  Nestor,  then  a  youth,  but  who  in  his  age  bore  arms  with 
Achilles  and  Ajax  in  the  Trojan  War/  —  these  and  many  more 
joined  in  the  enterprise.  With  them  came,  also,  Atalanta,  the 
daughter  of  lasius,  of  the  race  of  Callisto,  — 

Arcadian  Atalanta,  snowy-souled, 

Fair  as  the  snow  and  footed  as  the  wind.'' 

1  Ovid,  Metam.  8,  260-546.  2  §  i-q.  3  §  igo.  4  Chapter  XXI. 

6  From  Swinburne's  Atalanta  in  Calydon. 

237 


2^8 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


A  buckle  of  polished  gold  confined  her  vest,  an  ivory  quiver  hung 
on  her  left  shoulder,  and  her  left  hand  bore  the  bow.  Her  face 
blended  feminine  beauty  with  the  graces  of  martial  youth.  Meleager 
saw  and,  with  chivalric  reverence,  somewhat  thus  addressed  her : 

For  thy  name's  sake  and  awe  toward  thy  chaste  head, 

O  holiest  Atalanta !  no  man  dares 

Praise  thee,  though  fairer  than  whom  all  men  praise, 

And  godlike  for  thy  grace  of  hallowed  hair 

And  holy  habit  of  thine  eyes,  and  feet 

That  make  the  blown  foam  neither  swift  nor  white, 

Though  the  wind  winnow  and  whirl  it ;  yet  we  praise 

Gods,  found  because  of  thee  adorable 

And  for  thy  sake  praiseworthiest  from  all  men : 

Thee  therefore  we  praise  also,  thee"as  these, 

Pure,  and  a  light  lit  at  the  hands  of  gods.^ 


Fig.  134.    Meleager  on  the  Boar  Hunt 

But  there  was  no  time  then  for  love ;  on  to  the  hunt  they 
pushed.  To  the  hunt  went  also  Plexippus  and  Toxeus,  brothers 
of  Queen  Althaea,  braggarts,  envious  of  Meleager.  Speedily  the 
hunters  drew  near  the  monster's  lair.  They  stretched  strong  nets 
from  tree  to  tree ;  they  uncoupled  their  dogs  ;  they  sought  the 
footprints  of  their  quarry  in  the  grass.  From  the  wood  was  a 
descent  to  marshy  ground.  Here  the  boar,  as  he  lay  among  the 
reeds,  heard  the  shouts  of  his  pursuers  and  rushed  forth  against 

1  From  Swinburne's  Atalanta  in  Calydon. 


THE  FAMILY  OF  ^TOLUS,  ETC.  239 

them.    One  and  another  is  thrown  down  and  slain.    Jason,  Nestor, 
Telamon  open  the  attack,  but  in  vain. 

.  .  .  Then  all  abode  save  one, 
The  Arcadian  Atalanta :  from  her  side 
Sprang  her  hounds,  laboring  ^t  the  leash,  and  slipped, 
And  plashed  ear-deep  with  plunging  feet ;  but  she 
Saying,  "  Speed  it  as  I  send  it  for  thy  sake, 
Goddess,"  drew  bow  and  loosed ;  the  sudden  string 
Rang,  and  sprang  inward,  and  the  waterish  air 
Hissed,  and  the  moist  plumes  of  the  songless  reeds 
Moved  as  a  wave  which  the  wind  moves  no  more. 
But  the  boar  heaved  half  out  of  ooze  and  slime, 
His  tense  flank  trembling  round  the  barbed  wound, 
Hateful ;  and  fiery  with  invasive  eyes, 
And  bristling  with  intolerable  hair, 

Plunged,  and  the  hounds  clung,  and  green  flowers  and  white 
Reddened  and  broke  all  round  them  where  they  came.^ 

It  was  a  shght  wound,  but  Meleager  saw  and  joyfully  proclaimed 
it.  The  attack  was  renewed.  Peleus,  Amphiaraiis,  Theseus,  Jason, 
hurled  their  lances.  Ancaeus  was  laid  low  by  a  mortal  wound. 
But  Meleager,  — 

Rock-rooted,  fair  with  fierce  and  fastened  lips, 

Clear  eyes  and  springing  muscle  and  shortening  limb  — 

With  chin  aslant  indrawn  to  a  tightening  throat, 

Grave,  and  with  gathered  sinews,  like  a  god,  — 

Aimed  on  the  left  side  his  well-handled  spear, 

Grasped  where  the  ash  was  knottiest  hewn,  and  smote, 

And  with  no  missile  wound,  the  monstrous  boar 

Right  in  the  hairiest  hollow  of  his  hide, 

Under  the  last  rib,  sheer  through  bulk  and  bone, 

Deep  in ;  and  deeply  smitten,  and  to  death, 

The  heavy  horror  with  his  hanging  shafts 

Leapt,  and  fell  furiously,  and  from  raging  lips 

Foamed  out  the  latest  wrath  of  all  his  life.^ 

Then  rose  a  shout  from  those  around  ;  they  glorified  the  con- 
queror, —  crowded  to  touch  his  hand.  But  he,  placing  his  foot 
upon  the  head  of  the  slain  boar,  turned  to  Atalanta,  and  bestowed 

1  From  Swinburne's  Atalanta  in  Calydon. 


240  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

on  her  the  head  and  the  rough  hide  —  trophies  of  his  success. 
Thereat  she  laughed  — 

Lit  with  a  low  blush  to  the  braided  hair, 

And  rose-colored  and  cold  like  very  dawn, 

Golden  and  godlike,  chastely  with  chaste  lips, 

A  faint  grave  laugh ;  and  all  they  held  their  peace. 

And  she  passed  by  them.    Then  one  cried,  "  Lo  now, 

Shall  not  the  Arcadian  shoot  out  lips  at  us, 

Saying  all  we  were  despoiled  by  this  one  girl  ?  " 

And  all  they  rode  against  her  violently 

And  cast  the  fresh  crown  from  her  hair,  and  now 

They  had  rent  her  spoil  away,  dishonoring  her, 

Save  that  Meleager',  as  a  tame  lion  chafed, 

Bore  on  them,  broke  them,  and  as  fife  cleaves  wood. 

So  clove  and  drove  them,  smitten  in  twain ;  but  she 

Smote  not  nor  heaved  up  hand ;  and  this  man  first, 

Plexippus,  crying  out,  "  This  for  love's  sake.  Sweet," 

Drove  at  Meleager,  who  with  spear  straightening 

Pierced  his  cheek  through  ;  then  Toxeus  made  for  him, 

Dumb,  but  his  spear  shake ;  vain  and  violent  words. 

Fruitless ;  for  him,  too,  stricken  through  both  sides 

The  earth  felt  falling.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  And  these  being  slain. 

None  moved,  nor  spake.^ 

Of  this  fearful  sequel  to  the  hunt,  Althaea  has  heard  nothing. 
As  she  bears  thank  offering  to  the  temples  for  the  victory  of  her 
son,  the  bodies  of  her  murdered  brothers  meet  her  sight.  She 
shrieks,  and  beats  her  breast,  and  hastens  to  change  the  garments 
of  joy  for  those  of  mourning.  But  when  the  author  of  the  deed 
is  known,  grief  gives  way  to  the  stern  desire  of  vengeance  on 
her  son.  The  fatal  brand,  which  the  Destinies  have  linked  with 
Meleager's  life,  she  brings  forth.  She  commands  a  fire  to  be  pre- 
pared. Four  times  she  essays  to  place  the  brand  upon  the  pile ; 
four  times  draws  back,  shuddering  before  the  destruction  of  her 
son.  The  feelings  of  the  mother  and  the  sister  contend  within 
her.  Now  she  is  pale  at  the  thought  of  the  purposed  deed,  now 
flushed  again  with  anger  at  the  violence  of  her  offspring.    Finally, 

1  From  Swinbfime's  Atalanta  in  Calydon. 


THE  FAMILY  OF  ^TOLUS,  ETC. 


241 


the  sister  prevails  over  the  mother  :  —  turning  away  her  face,  she 
throws  the  fatal  wood  upon  the  burning  pile.  Meleager,  absent 
and  unconscious  of  the  cause,  feels  a  sudden  pang.  He  burns  ; 
he  calls  upon  those  whom  he  loves,  Atalanta  and  his  mother.  But 
speedily  the  brand  is  ashes,  and  the  life  of  Meleager  is  breathed 
forth  to  the  wandering  winds. 

When  at  last  the  deed  was  done,  the  mother  laid  violent  hands 
upon  herself. 

169.  Merope.  A  heroine  connected  by  blood  with  Atalanta  was 
Merope,^  daughter  of  king  Cypselus  of  Arcadia,  and  descended 
from  Areas,  the  son  of  Callisto  and  Jupiter.     On  account  of  her 


Fig.  135.   The  Death  of  Meleager 

relationship  to  Atalanta  her  story  may  be  told  here,  though  she  is 
not  a  member  of  the  family  of  -Stolus.  Her  husband,  Cresphontes 
the  Heraclid,  king  of  Messenia,  had  been  slain  with  two  of  his 
sons  by  rebellious  nobles ;  and  one  Polyphontes,  leader  of  the 
revolt,  reigned  in  his  stead  and  took  Merope  to  wife.  But  her 
third  son  by  Cresphontes,  ^pytus,  had  been  concealed  by  her  in 
Arcadia.  Thence,  in  due  season,  he  returned  unknown  to  her, 
with  the  purpose  of  wreaking  vengeance  on  the  murderers  of  his 
sire.  He  pretended  to  have  slain  /Epytus,  and  so  as  a  stranger 
won  the  favor  of  Polyphontes,  but  came  near  losing  his  life  at  his 
mother's  hands.  A  recognition  being  happily  effected,  -^^pytus, 
aided  by  his  mother,  put  Polyphontes  to  death  and  took  possession 
of  the  kingdom.    This  story  has  been  frequently  dramatized,  first 

1  Hyginus,  Fab.iS4  ;  Apollodorus,  2,  S  ;  Pausanias,  2, 18  ;  4,  3,  etc. ;  Aristotle,  Poetics,  14,  9. 


242  .     THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

by  Euripides  in  a  lost  play  called  Cresphontes,  and  most  recently 
by  Matthew  Arnold,  whose  Merope  is  a  masterpiece  of  classical 
invention  and  of  poetic  execution. 

170.  Castor  and  Pollux.  Leda,  the  sister  of  Althaea  and  aunt  of 
Meleager,  bore  to  Tyndareus,  king  of  Sparta,  Castor  and  Clytem- 
nestra.    To  Jove  she  bore  Pollux  and  Helen.    Pollux  and  Castor 

—  one,  the  son  of  a  god  and  immortal,  the  other,  of  moital  breed 
and  destiny  —  are  famous  for  their  fraternal  affection.  Endowed 
with  various  manly  virtues,  —  Castor  a  horse-tamer,  Pollux  a  boxer, 

—  they  made  all  expeditions  in  common.  Together  they  joined 
the  Calydonian  hunt.  Together  they  accompanied  the  Argonauts. 
During  the  voyage  to  Colchis  it  is  said  that,  a  storm  arising, 
Orpheus  prayed  to  the  Samothracian  gods  and  played  on  his  harp, 
and  that  when  the  storm  ceased,  stars  appeared  on  the  heads  of  the 
brothers.    Hence  they  came  to  be  honored  as  patrons  of  voyagers. 

They  rendered,  indeed,  noteworthy  service  to  the  Argonauts 
returning  from  Colchis  with  Medea  and  the  Golden  Fleece.  P^or 
when  the  voyagers '  attempted  a  landing  at  Crete  they  were  con- 
fronted by  the  gigantic  warder  of  the  island.  This  was  Talus,  a 
form  of  living  brass,  fashioned  by  Hephasstus  (Vulcan)  and"  pre- 
sented to  King  Minos,  about  whose  Cretan  domain  he  made  his 
rounds  three  times  a  day.  Ordinarily  when  Talus  saw  voyagers 
nearing  the  coast  he  fired  himself  red-hot  and  embraced  them  as 
they  landed.  For  some  reason  he  did  not  welcome  the  Argonauts 
in  this  warm  fashion,  but 

Whirling  with  resistless  sway 
Rocks  sheer  uprent,  repels  them  from  the  bay.^ 

Medea,  objecting  to  the  volley  of  stones,  resorts  to  necromantic 
spells : 

Thrice  she  applies  the  power  of  magic  prayer, 
Thrice,  hellward  bending,  mutters  charms  in  air ; 
Then,  turning  toward  the  foe,  bids  Mischief  fly,  . 
And  looks  Destruction  as  she  points  her  eye.^ 

Maddened,  as  might  be  surmised,  by  so  insidious  and  unaccus- 
tomed a  form  of  attack,  the  Man  of  Brass  '"  tears  up  whole  hills  to 

>  Apollonius  Rhodius,  4,  1629  (Broome's  translation).   See  also  Apollodorus,  1  ;  9,  26. 


THE  FAMILY  OF  ^TOLUS,  ETC.  243 

crush  his  foes  ";  then  fleeing  in  sudden  panic,  he  is  overcome  by 
the  stupor  of  the  enchantment  and  taken  captive  by  Castor  and 
Pollux.  He  had  in  his  body  only  one  vein,  and  that  plugged  on 
the  crown  of  his  head  with  a  nail.    Medea  drew  out  the  stopper. 

At  a  later  period  when  Theseus  and  his  friend  Pirithoiis  had 
carried  off  Helen  from  Sparta,  the  youthful  heroes,  Castor  and 
Pollux,  with  their  followers  hasted  to  the  rescue.  Theseus  being 
absent  from  Attica,  the  brothers  recovered  their  sister.  Later  still, 
we  find  Castor  and  Pollux  engaged  in  a  combat  with  Idas  and 
Lynceus  of  Messene,  some  say  over  the  daughters  of  Leucippus, 
others,  over  a  herd  of  oxen.  Castor  was  slain  ;  but  Pollux,  incon- 
solable for  the  loss  of  his  brother,  besought  Jupiter  to  be  permitted 
to  give  his  own  life  as  a  ransom  for  him.  Jupiter  so  far  consented 
as  to  allow  the  two  brothers  to  enjoy  the  boon  of  life  alternately, 
each  spending  one  day  under  the  earth  and  the  next  in  the  heav- 
enly abodes.  According  to  another  version,  Jupiter  rewarded  the 
attachment  of  the  brothers  by  placing  them  among  the  stars  as 
Gemini,  the  Twins.  They  received  heroic  honors  as  the  TyndaridcB 
{sons  of  Tyndareus)  ;  divine  honors  they  received  under  the  name 
of  Diosairi  (sons  of  Jove).' 

171.  The  Twin  Brethren  among  the  Romans.    In  Rome  they 

were  honored  with  a  temple  in  the  Forum  and  made  the  patrons 

of  knighthood  because  of  the  assistance  they  rendered  in  the  battle 

of  Lake  Regillus.   In  the  moment  of  dire  distress  they  had  appeared, 

a  princely  pair : 

So  like  they  were,  no  mortal 

Might  one  from  other  know ; 
White  as  snow  their  armor  was, 

Their  steeds  were  white  as  snow. 
Never  on  earthly  anvil 

Did  such  rare  armor  gleam, 
And  never  did  such  gallant  steeds 

Drink  of  an  earthly  stream. 

And  all  who  saw  them  trembled, 

And  pale  grew  every  cheek ; 
And  Aulus  the  Dictator 

Scarce  gathered  voice  to  speak  : 

I  Hyginus,  Fab.  So;  Ovid,  Fasti,  loo.   Theocritus,  Idyl  XXII,  gives  a  different  versioa 


244  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

"  Say  by  what  name  men  call  you  ? 

What  city  is  your  home  ? 
And  wherefore  ride  ye  in  such  guise 

Before  the  ranks  of  Rome  ?  " 

"  By  many  names,"  they  answered, — 

"  By  many  names  men  call  us ; 

In  many  lands  we  dwell : 
Well  Samothracia  knows  us ; 
Cyrene  knows  us  well ; 
Our  house  in  gay  Tarentum 

Is  hung  each  morn  with  flowers; 
High  o'er  the  masts  of  Syracuse 

Our  marble  portal  towers ; 
But  by  the  brave  Eurotas 

Is  our  dear  native  home ; 
And  for  the  right  we  come  to  fight 
Before  the  ranks  of  Rome." 

After  the  battle  was  won  they  were 
the  first  to  bear  the  tidings  to  the  city. 
With  joy  the  people  acclaimed  them, — 

But  on  rode  these  strange  horsemen, 

With  slow  and  lordly  pace ; 
And  none  who  saw  their  bearing 
Durst  ask  their  name  or  race. 
On  rode  they  to  the  Forum, 

While  laurel  boughs  and  flowers, 
From  housetops  and  from  windows. 
Fell  on  their  crests  in  showers. 

When  they  drew  nigh  to  Vesta, 

They  vaulted  down  amain, 
And  washed  their  horses  in  the  well 

That  springs  by  Vesta's  fane. 
And  straight  again  they  mounted. 

And  rode  to  Vesta's  door ; 
Then,  like  a  blast,  away  they  passed. 
And  no  man  saw  them  more.  .  .  . 

And  Sergius  the  High  Pontiff 
Alone  found  voice  to  speak  : 


Fig.  136.   Castor  and  Pollux 

CAPTURING  THE  GlANT  TaLUS 

(Left  portion) 


THE  FAMILY  OF  ^TOLUS,  ETC. 

"  The  gods  who  live  forever 

Have  fought  for  Rome  to-day  ! 
These  be  the  Great  Twin  Brethren 

To  whom  the  Dorians  pray. 
Back  comes  the  chief  in  triumph 

Who,  in  the  hour  of  fight, 
Hath  seen  the  Great  Twin  Brethren 

In  harness  on  his  right. 
Safe  comes  the  ship  to  haven, 

Through  billows  and  through  gales 


245 


Fig.  137.    Castor  and  Pollux  capturing  the  Giant  Talus 
(Right  portion) 

If  once  the  Great  Twin  Brethren 

Sit  shining  on  the  sails.  ... 
Here,  hard  by  Vesta's  temple, 

Build  we  a  stately  dome 
Unto  the  Great  Twin  Brethren 

Who  fought  so  well  for  Rome !  "  ^ 

For  many  a  year  the  procession,  in  which  the  knights,  olive- 
wreathed  and  purple-robed,  marched  in  honor  of  the  Twin  Brethren, 
continued  to  be  held  ;  and  still  there  stand  three  columns  of  their 
temple  above  the  pool  of  Juturna  and  Vesta's  ruined  shrine. 

1  Macaulay,  Lays  of  Ancient  Rome,  The  Battle  of  Lake  Regillus. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE   HOUSE   OE  MINOS 

172.  Minos  of  Crete  was  a  descendant  of  Inachus  in  the*  sixth 
generation.  A  son  of  Jupiter  and  Europa,  he  was,  after  death, 
transferred,  with  his  brother  Rhadamanthus  and  with  King  ^acus, 

'to  Hades,  where  the  three  became  judges  of  the  Shades.  This  is 
the  Minos  mentioned  by  Homer  and  Hesiod,  —  the  eminent  law- 
giver. Of  his  grandson,  Minos  II,  it  is  related  that  when  aiming 
at  the  crown  of  Crete,  he  boasted  of  his  power  to  obtain  by  prayer 
whatever  he  desired,  and  as  a  test,  he  implored  Neptune  to  send 
him  a  bull  for  sacrifice.  The  bull  appeared,  but  Minos,  astonished 
at  its  great  beauty,  declined  to  sacrifice  the  brute.  Neptune,  there- 
fore incensed,  drove  the  bull  wild,  —  worse  still,  drove  Pasiphae, 
the  wife  of  Minos,  wild  with  love  of  it.  The  wonderful  brute  was 
finally  caught  and  overcome  by  Hercules,  who  rode  it  through  the 
waves  to  Greece.  But  its  offspring,  the  Minotaur,  a  monster  bull- 
headed  and  man-bodied,  remained  for  many  a  day  a  terror  to 
Crete,  till  finally  a  famous  artificer,  Dsdalus,  constructed  for 
him  a  labyrinth,  with  passages  and  turnings  winding  in  and  about 
like  the  river  Maeander,  so  that  whoever  was  inclosed  in  it  might 
by  no  means  find  his  way  out.  The  Minotaur,  roaming  therein, 
lived  upon"  human  victims.  For  it  is  said  that,  after  Minos  had 
subdued  Megara,^  a  tribute  of  seven  youths  and  seven  maidens 
was  sent  every  year  from  Athens  to  Crete  to  feed  this  monster ; 
and  it  was  not  until  the  days  of  Theseus  of  Athens  that  an  end 
was  put  to  both  tribute  and  Minotaur.^ 

173.  Daedalus  and  Icarus.^  Daedalus,  who  abetted  the  love 
of  Pasiphae    for   the    Cretan  bull,  afterwards   lost   the   favor  of 

2  §  177.   ApoUodorus,  3,  1,  §  3  ;  15,  §  8  ;  Pausanias,  i,  27,  §  9,  etc. ;  Ovid,  Metam.  7,  456. 
»  Virgil,  ;Eneid,  6,  14-36  ;  Ovid,  Metam.  8,  152-259 ;  Hyginus,  Fab.  40,  44. 

246 


THE  HOUSE  OF  MINOS 


247 


Minos  and  was  imprisoned  by  him.  Seeing  no  other  way  of 
escape,  the  artificer  made,  out  of  feathers,  wings  for  his  son 
Icarus  and  himself,  which  he  fas- 
tened on  with  wax.  Then  poising 
themselves  in  the  air,  they  flew  away. 
Icarus  had  been  warned  not  to  ap- 
proach too  near  the  sun,  and  all  went 
well  till  they  had  passed  Samos  and 
Delos  on  the  left  and  Lebynthos  on 
the  right.  But  then  the  boy,  exult- 
ing in  his  career,  soared  upward. 
The  blaze  of  the  torrid  sun  softened 
the  waxen  fastening  of  his  wings. 
Off  they  came,  and  down  the  lad 
dropped  into  the  sea  which  after  him 
is  named  l£arian,  even  to  this  day.  fig.  138.  U/edalus  and  Icarus 

.  .  .    With  melting  wax  and  loosened  strings 

Sunk  hapless  Icarus  on  unfaithful  wings ; 

Headlong  he  rushed  through  the  affrighted  air, 

With  limbs  distorted  and  disheveled  hair ; 

His  scattered  plumage  danced  upon  the  wave,  • 

And  sorrowing  Nereids  decked  his  watery  grave ; 

O'er  his  pale  corse  their  pearly  sea  flowers  shed, 

And  strewed  with  crimson  moss  his  marble  bed ; 

Struck  in  their  coral  towers  the  passing  bell, 

And  wide  in  ocean  tolled  his  echoing  knell. ^ 

The  story,  save  for  its  tragic  conclusion,  reads  like  a  remarkable  an- 
ticipation of  the  exploits  of  the  Wright  brothers,  Bleriot,  and  Latham 
with  the  aeroplane  to-day,  or  of  Count  Zeppelin  with  his  airships. 

Daedalus,  mourning  his  son,  arrived  finally  in  Sicily  where, 
being  kindly  received  by  King  Cocalus,  he  built  a  temple  to 
Apollo  and  hung  up  his  wings,  an  offering  to  the  god.  But 
Minos,  having  learned  of  the  hiding  place  of  the  artificer,  fol- 
lowed him  to  Sicily  with  a  great  fleet ;  and  Daedalus  would  surely 
have  perished,  had  not  one  of  the  daughters  of  Cocalus  disposed 
of  Minos  by  scalding  him  to  death  while  he  was  bathing. 

1  Erasmus  Darwin. 


248  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

It  is  said  that  Daedalus  could  not  bear  the  idea  of  a  rival.  His 
sister  had  placed  her  son  Perdix  under  his  charge  to  be  taught  the 
mechanical  arts.  He  was  an  apt  scholar  and  gave  striking  evi- 
dences of  ingenuity.  Walking  on  the  seashore,  he  picked  up  the 
spine  of  a  fish,  and,  imitating  it  in  iron,  invented  the  saw.  He 
invented,  also,  a  pair  of  compasses.  But  Daedalus,  envious  of  his 
nephew,  pushed  him  off  a  tower  and  killed  him.  Minerva,  how- 
ever, in  pity  of  the  boy,  changed  him  into  a  bird,  the  partridge, 
which  bears  his  name. 

To  the  descendants  of  Inachus  we  shall  again  return  in  the, 
account  of  the  house  of  Labdacus.  ffiJ-   (■' 


CHAPTER  XVIII 


THE  HOUSE  OF  CECROPS  AND  ERICHTHONIUS 


174.  From  Cecropsi  to  Philomela.  Cecrops,  half-snake,  half- 
man,  came  from  Crete  or  Egypt  into  Attica,  founded  Athens,  and 
chose  Minerva  rather  than  Neptune  as  its  guardian.  His  successor 
was  Erichthonius,^  or  Erechtheus,  a  snake-formed  genius  of  the 
fertile  soil  of  Attica.  This 

Erichthonius^  was  a  spe-  (^      ~^ 

cial  ward  of  the  goddess 
Minerva,  who  brought 
him  up  in  her  temple. 
His  son  Pandion  had  two 
daughters,  Procne  and 
Philomela,  of  whom  he 
gave  the  former  in  mar- 
riage to  Tereus,  king  of 
Thrace  (or  of  Daulis  in 
Phocis).  This  ruler,  after 
his  wife  had  borne  him 
a  son  Itys  (or  Itylus), 
wearied  of  her,  plucked 
out  her  tongue  by  the  roots  to  insure  her  silence,  and,  pretending 
that  she  was  dead,  took  in  marriage  the  other  sister,  Philomela. 
Procne  by  means  of  a  web,  into  which  she  wove  her  story,  in- 
formed Philomela  of  the  horrible  truth.  In  revenge  upon  Tereus, 
the  sisters  killed  Itylus  and  served  up  the  child  as  food  to  the 
father;  but  the  gods,  in  indignation,  transformed  Procne  into  a 
swallow,  Philomela  into  a  nightingale,  forever  bemoaning  the  mur- 
dered Itylus,  and  Tereus  into  a  hawk,  forever  pursuing  the  sisters.* 

1  Ovid,  Metam.  2,  555  ;  Apollodorus,  3,  14,  §  i  ;  Pausanias ;  and  Hyginus,  Fab.  48. 

2  Ovid,  Metam.  2,  554;  6,  676;  Homer,  Iliad,  2,  547;  Odyssey,  7,  81;  Hyginus,  Poet. 
Astr.  2,  13. 

8  For  Ruskin's  interpretation,  see  Queen  of  the  Air,  §  38. 

4  Hyginus,  Fab.  45  ;  Apollodorus,  3,  14,  §  8  ;  Ovid,  Metam.  6,  412-676.   See  Commentary. 

249 


Fig.  139.    Theseus 


250  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

175.  Matthew  Arnold's  Philomela. 

Hark !  ah,  the  nightingale  — 

The  tawny-throated ! 

Hark,  from  that  moonlit  cedar  what  a  burst ! 

What  triumph  !  hark  !  —  what  pain  ! 

O  wanderer  from  a  Grecian  shore, 

Still,  after  many  years  in  distant  lands, 

Still  nourishing  in  thy  bewilder'd  brain 

That  wild,  unquench'd,  deep-sunken,  old-world  pain  — 

Say,  will  it  never  heal  ? 

And  can  this  fragrant  lawn 

With  its  Gool  trees,  and  night, 

And  the  sweet,  tranquil  Thames, 

And  moonshine,  and  the  dew. 

To  thy  rack'd  heart  and  brain 

Afford  no  calm  ? 

Dost  thou  to-night  behold. 

Here,  through  the  moonlight  on  this  English  grass, 

The  unfriendly  palace  in  the  Thracian  wild? 

Dost  thou  again  peruse. 

With  hot  cheeks  and  sear'd  eyes, 

The  too  clear  web,  and  thy  dumb  sister's  shame  ? 

Dost  thou  once  more  assay 

Thy  flight,  and  feel  come  over  thee. 

Poor  fugitive,  the  feathery  change 

Once  more,  and  once  more  seem  to  make  resound 

With  love  and  hate,  triumph  and  agony. 

Lone  Daulis,  and  the  high  Cephissian  vale  ? 

Listen,  Eugenia  — 

How  thick  the  bursts  come  crowding  through  the  leaves ! 

Again  —  thou  hearest? 

Eternal  passion ! 

Eternal  pain ! 

According  to  another  version  of  this  story,  it  was  Philomela 
who  was  robbed  of  her  tongue  and  who  wove  the  web  by  means 
of  which  the  queen  Procne  learned  the  truth. 

176.  Theseus.i  A  descendant  of  Erechtheus,  or  of  Cecrops,  was 
^geus,  king  of  Athens.    By  ALthm,  granddaughter  of  Pelops,  he 

1  Ovid,  Metam.  7,  350-424  ;  Plutarch,  Theseus. 


THE  HOUSE  OF  CECROPS  AND  ERICHTHONIUS 


251 


became  the  father  of  the  Attic  hero,  I'heseus.  JEgens,  on  parting 
from  ^thra,  before  the  birth  of  the  child,  had  placed  his  sword 
and  shoes  under  a  large  stone  and  had  directed  her  to  send  the 
child  to  him  if  it  should  prove  strong  enough  to  roll  away  the 
stone  and  take  w-hat  was  under.  The  lad  Theseus  w^as  brought  up 
at  Troezen,  of  which  Pittheus,  ^thra's  father,  was  king.  When 
yEthra  thought  the  time  had  come,  she  led  Theseus  to  the  stone. 
He  removed  it  with  ease  and  took  the  sword  and  shoes.  Since  at 
that  time  the  roads 
were  infested  with  rob- 
bers, his  grandfather 
Pittheus  pressed  him 
earnestly  to  take  the 
shorter  and  safer  way 
to  his  father's  country, 
by  sea  ;  but  the  youth, 
feeling  in  himself  the 
spirit  and  soul  of  a 
hero  and  eager  to 
signalize  himself  like 
Hercules,  determined 
on  the  more  perilous 
and  adventurous  jour- 
ney by  land. 

His  first  day's  jour- 
ney brought  him  to 
Epidaurus,  where  dwelt  Periphetes,  a  son  of  Vulcan.  This  fero- 
cious savage  always  went  armed  with  a  club  of  iron,  and  all  travel- 
ers stood  in  terror  of  his  violence  ;  but  beneath  the  blows  of  the 
young  hero  he  speedily  fell. 

Several  similar  contests  with  the  petty  tyrants  and  marauders  of 
the  country  followed,  in  all  of  which  Theseus  was  victorious.  Most 
important  was  his  slaughter  of  Procrustes,  or  the  Stretcher.  This 
giant  had  an  iron  bedstead  on  which  he  used  to  tie  all  travelers 
who  fell  into  his  hands.  If  they  were  shorter  than  the  bed,  he 
stretched  them  till  they  fitted  it ;  if  they  were  longer  than  the  bed, 
he  lopped  off  their  limbs. 


Fig.  140.    yExHRA  and  Theseus 


252 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


In  the  course  of  time  Theseus  reached  Athens,  but  here  new 
dangers  awaited  him.  For  Medea,  the  sorceress,  who  had  fled 
from  Corinth  after  her  separation  from  Jason,^  had  become  the 
wife  of  yEgeus.  Knowing  by  her  arts  who  the  stranger  was,  and 
fearing  the  loss  of  her  influence  with  her  husband  if  Theseus 
should  be  acknowledged  as  his  son,  she  tried  to  poison  the 
youth ;  but  the  sword  which  he  wore  discovered  him  to  his  father 

and  prevented  the  fatal 
draft.  Medea  fled  to 
Asia,  where  the  country 
afterwards  called  Media 
is  said  to  have  received 
its  name  from  her. 
Theseus  was  acknowl- 
edged by  his  sire  and 
declared  successor  to 
the  throne, 

177.  Theseus  and 
Ariadne. 2  Now  the 
Athenians  were  at  that 
time  in  deep  affliction 
on  account  of  the  trib- 
ute of  youths  and  maid- 
ens which  they  were 
forced  to  send  to  the 
Minotaur,  dwelling  in 
the  labyrinth  of  Crete, 
— a  penalty  said  to  have 
been  imposed  by  Minos  upon  the  Athenians  because  ^geus  had 
sent  Androgeiis,  the  son  of  Minos,  against  the  Marathonian  bull 
and  so  had  brought  about  the  young  man's  death. 

From  this  calamity  Theseus  resolved  to  deliver  his  countrymen 
or  to  die  in  the  attempt.  He,  therefore,  in  spite  of  the  entreaties 
of  his  father,  presented  himself  as  champion  of  Athens  and  of  her 
fair  sons  and  daughters,  to  do  battle  against  the  Minotaur,  and 
departed  with  the  victims  in  a  vessel  bearing  black  sails,  which  he 

'  §  167.  ■-  Odyssey,  11,  321  ;  Plutarch,  Theseus;  Catullus,  LXIV. 


Fig.  141.   Theseus  and  the  Minotaur 


THE  HOUSE  OF  CECROPS  AND  ERICHTHONIUS      253 

promised  his  father  to  change  for  white  in  the  event  of  his  return- 
ing victorious.    So,  — 

Rather  than  cargo  on  cargo  of  corpses  undead  should  be  wafted  ^ 
Over  the  ravening  sea  to  the  pitiless  monster  of  Creta,  — 
Leaving  the  curved  strand  Pirasan,  and  wooing  the  breezes, 
Theseus  furrowed  the  deep  to  the  dome  superb  of  the  tyrant. 

Then  as  the  maid  Ariadne  beheld  him  with  glances  of  longing,  — 
Princess  royal  of  Creta  Minoan,  tender,  sequestered,  — 
Locked  in  a  mother's  embrace,  in  seclusion  virginal,  fragrant, 
Like  some  myrtle  set  by  streaming  ways  of  Eurotas, 
Like  to  the  varied  tints  that  Spring  invites  with  her  breezes,  — 
Then,  as  with  eager  gaze  she  looked  her  first  upon  Theseus, 
Never  a  whit  she  lowered  her  eyes  nor  ceased  to  consume  him, 
Ere  to  the  core  profound  her  breast  with  love  was  enkindled. 
—  God-born  boy,  thou  pitiless  heart,  provoker  of  madness. 
Mischievous,  mingling  care  with  the  fleeting  pleasure  of  mortals,  — 
Goddess  of  Golgi,  thou,  frequenter  of  coverts  Idalian, 
In  what  wildering  seas  ye  tossed  the  impassionate  maiden 
Ever  a-sighing,  —  aye  for  the  fair-haired  stranger  a-sighing ! 
Ah,  what  ponderous  fears  oppressed  her  languishing  bosom. 
How,  more  pallid  than  gold  her  countenance  flashed  into  whiteness. 
What  time  Theseus  marched  unto  death  or  to  glory  undying. 
Manful,  minded  to  quell  the  imbruted  might  of  the  monster ! 

Not  unaided,  however,  did  he  undertake  the  task  ;  for  Ariadne, 
apprehensive  lest  he  might  lose  his  way  in  the  daedalian  labyrinth, 
furnished  him  with  a  thread,  the  gift  of  Vulcan,  which,  unrolled 
by  Theseus  as  he  entered  the  maze,  should  enable  him  on  his  return 
to  retrace  his  former  path.    Meanwhile  — 

Offering  artless  bribes,  Ariadne  invoked  the  Immortals, 
Kindled  voiceless  lip  with  unvoiced  tribute  of  incense, 
Suppliant,  not  in  vain :  for,  like  to  an  oak  upon  Taurus, 
Gnarled,  swinging  his  arms,  —  like  some  cone-burthened  pine  tree 
Oozing  the  life  from  his  bark,  that,  riven  to  heart  by  the  whirlwind, 
Wholly  uprooted  from  earth,  falls  prone  with  extravagant  ruin. 
Perishes,  dealing  doom  with  precipitate  rush  of  its  branches,  — 
So  was  the  Cretan  brute  by  Theseus  done  to  destruction. 
E'en  so,  tossing  in  vain  his  horns  to  the  vacuous  breezes. 

1  Catullus,  LXIV.  From  The  Wedding  of  Peleus  and  Thetis.  A  Translation  in  Hexam- 
eters, by  Charles  Mills  Gayley. 


254 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Then  with  abundant  laud  he  turned,  unscathed  from  the  combat, 
Theseus,  —  guiding  his  feet  unsure  by  the  filament  slender, 
Lest  as  he  threaded  paths  circuitous,  ways  labyrinthine. 
Some  perverse,  perplexing,  erratic  alley  might  foil  him. 

Why  should  I  tarry  to  tell  how,  quitting  her  sire,  Ariadne 
Quitting  the  sister's  arms,  the  infatuate  gaze  of  the  mother,  — 
She  whose  sole  delight,  whose  life,  was  her  desperate  daughter,  — 
How  Ariadne  made  less  of  the  love  of  them 

all  than  of  Theseus  ? 
Why  should  I  sing  how  sailing  they  came  to 

the  beaches  of  Dia,  — 
White  with  the  foam,  —  how  thence,  false- 
hearted, the  lover  departing 
Left  her  benighted  with  sleep,  the  Minoid, 
princess  of  Creta? 


Fig.  142.   The  Sleeping  Ariadne 


Gazing  amain  from  the  marge  of  the  flood-reverberant  Dia, 
Chafing  with  ire,  indignant,  exasperate,  —  lo,  Ariadne, 
Lorn  Ariadne,  beholds  swift  craft,  swift  lover  retreating. 
Nor  can  be  sure  she  sees  what  things  she  sees  of  a  surety, 
When  upspringing  from  sleep,  she  shakes  off  treacherous  slumber. 
Lone  beholds  herself  on  a  shore  forlorn  of  the  ocean. 
Carelessly  hastens  the  youth,  meantime,  who,  driving  his  oar-blades 
Hard  in  tlie  waves,  consigns  void  vows  to  the  blustering  breezes. 
But  as,  afar  from  the  sedge,  with  sad  eyes  still  the  Minoid 
Mute  as  a  Maenad  in  stone  unmoving  stonily  gazes  — 
Heart  o'erwhelmed  with  woe  —  ah,  thus,  while  thus  she  is  gazing,  — 


THE  HOUSE  OF  CECROPS  AND  ERICHTHONIUS      255 

Down  from  her  yellow  hair  slips,  sudden,  the  weed  of  the  fine-spun 
Snood,  and  the  vesture  light  of  her  mantle  down  from  the  shoulders 
Slips,  and  the  twisted  scarf  encircling  her  womanly  bosom ; 
Stealthily  gliding,  slip  they  downward  into  the  billow, 
Fall,  and  are  tossed  by  the  buoyant  flood  at  the  feet  of  the  fair  one. 
Nothing  she  recks  of  the  coif,  of  the  floating  garment  as  little, 
Cares  not  a  moment  then,  whose  care  hangs  only  on  Theseus,  — 
Wretched  of  heart,  soul-wrecked,  dependent  only  on  Theseus,  — 
Desperate,  woe-unselfed  with  a  cureless  sorrow  incessant. 
Frantic,  bosoming  torture  of  thorns  Erycina  had  planted.  .  .  . 

Then,  they  say,  that  at  last,  infuriate  out  of  all  measure, 
Once  and  again  she  poured  shrill-voiced  shrieks  from  her  bosom ; 
Helpless,  clambered  steeps,  sheer  beetling  over  the  surges, 
Whence  to  enrange  with  her  eyes  vast  futile  regions  of  ocean ;  — 
Lifting  the  folds,  soft  folds  of  her  garments,  baring  her  ankles. 
Dashed  into  edges  of  upward  waves  that  trembled  before  her ; 
Uttered,  anguished  then,  one  wail,  her  maddest  and  saddest,  — 
Catching  with  tear-wet  lips  poor  sobs  that  shivering  choked  her :  — 
"  Thus  is  it  far  from  my  home,  O  traitor,  and  far  from  its  altars  — 
Thus  on  a  desert  strand,  —  dost  leave  me,  treacherous  Theseus  ? 
Thus  is  it  thou  dost  flout  our  vow,  dost  flout  the  Immortals,  — 
Carelessly  homeward  bearest,  with  baleful  ballast  of  curses? 
Never,  could  never  a  plea  forfend  thy  cruelly  minded 
Counsel .''    Never  a  pity  entreat  thy  bosom  for  shelter  ?  .  .  . 
Hence,  let  never  a  maid  confide  in  the  oath  of  a  lover, 
Never  presume  man's  vows  hold  aught  trustworthy  within  them  ! 
Verily,  while  in  anguish  of  heart  his  spirit  is  longing, 
Nothing  he  spares  to  assever,  nor  aught  makes  scruple  to  promise : 
But,  an  his  dearest  desire,  his  nearest  of  heart  be  accorded  — 
Nothing  he  recks  of  affiance,  and  reckons  perjury,  —  nothing. 

"  Oh  !  what  lioness  whelped  thee.?    Oh  !  what  desolate  cavern.-' 
What  was  the  sea  that  spawned,  that  spat  from  its  churning  abysses, 
Thee,  —  what  wolfish  Scylla,  or  Syrtis,  or  vasty  Charybdis, 
Thee,  —  thus  thankful  for  life,  dear  gift  of  living,  I  gave  thee  ?  .  .  . 
Had  it  not  liked  thee  still  to  acknowledge  vows  that  we  plighted, 
Mightest  thou  homeward,  yet,  have  borne  me  a  damsel  beholden, 
Fain  to  obey  thy  will,  and  to  lave  thy  feet  like  a  servant, 
Fain  to  bedeck  thy  couch  with  purple  coverlet  for  thee. 

"  But  to  the  hollow  winds  why  stand  repeating  my  quarrel,  — 
I,  for  sorrow  unselfed,  —  they,  but  breezes  insensate,   - 


2s6 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Potent  neither  voices  to  hear  nor  words  to  re-echo  ?  .  .  . 

Yea,  but  where  shall  I  turn  ?    Forlorn,  what  succor  rely  on  ? 

'  Haste  to  the  Gnossian  hills? '    Ah,  see  how  distantly  surging 

Deeps  forbid,  distending  their  gulfs  abhorrent  before  me ! 

'  Comfort  my  heart,  mayhap,  with  the  loyal  love  of  my  husband  ? ' 

Lo,  the  reluctant  oar,  e'en  now,  he  plies  to  forsake  me  !  — 

Nought  but  the  homeless  strand  of  an  isle  remote  of  the  ocean ! 

No,  no  way  of  escape,  where  the  circling  sea  without  shore  is,  — - 

No,  no  counsel  of  flight,  no  hope,  no  sound  of  a  mortal ; 

All  things  desolate,  dumb,  yea,  all  things  summoning  deathward ! 

Yet  mine  eyes  shall  not  fade  in  death  that  sealeth 

the  eyelids, 
Nor  from  the  frame  outworn  shall  fare  my  linger- 
ing senses. 
Ere,  undone,  from  powers  divine  I  claim  retribu- 
tion — 
Ere  I  call  — -  in  the  hour  supreme,  on  the  faith  of 
Immortals! 


"  Come,  then,  Righters  of  Wrong,  O  vengeful 
dealers  of  justice, 
Braided  with  coil  of  the  serpents,  O  Eumenides, 

ye  of 
Brows  that  blazon  ire  exhaling  aye  from  the  bosom, 
Haste,  oh,  haste  ye,  hither  and  hear  me,  vehement 

plaining. 
Destitute,  fired  with  rage,   stark-blind,  demented 
Fig.  143.   Head  of  for  fury  !  — 

Dionysus  As  with   careless   heart  yon  Theseus  sailed  and 

forgot  me, 
So  with  folly  of  heart,  may  he  slay  himself  and  his  household !  " 
.  .  .  Then  with  a  nod  supreme  Olympian  Jupiter  nodded : 
Quaked  thereat  old  Earth,  —  quaked,  shuddered  the  terrified  waters, 
Ay,  and  the  constellations  in  Heaven  that  glitter  were  jangled. 
Straightway  like  some  cloud  on  the  inward  vision  of  Theseus 
Dropped  oblivion  down,  enshrouding  vows  he  had  cherished. 
Hiding  away  all  trace  of  the  solemn  behest  of  his  father. 

For,  as  was  said  before,  JEgeus,  on  the  departure  of  his  son  for 
Creta,  had  given  him  this  command  :  "  If  Minerv^a,  goddess  of  our 
city,  grant  thee  victory  over  the  Minotaur,  hoist  on  thy  return, 
when  first  the  dear  hills  of  Attica  greet  thy  vision,  white  canvas 


THE  HOUSE  OF  CECROPS  AND.  ERICHTHONIUS      257 


to  herald  thy  joy  and  mine, 
that  mine  eyes  may  see  the 
propitious  sign  and  know  the 
glad  day  that  restores  thee 
safe  to  me." 

.  .  ,  Even  as  clouds  compelled  by 
urgent  push  of  the  breezes ' 

Float  from  the  brow  uplift  of  a 
snow-enveloped  mountain, 

So  from  Theseus  passed  all  prayer 
and  behest  of  his  father. 

Waited  the  sire  meanwhile,  looked 
out  from  his  tower  over  ocean, 

Wasted  his  anxious  eyes  in  futile 
labor  of  weeping. 

Waited  expectant,  —  saw  to  the 
southward  sails  black-bellied  — 

Hurled  him  headlong  down  from 
the  horrid  steep  to  destruc- 
tion, — 

Weening  hateful  Fate  had  severed 
the  fortune  of  Theseus. 

Theseus,  then,  as  he  paced  that 
gloom  of  the  home  of  his 
father. 

Insolent   Theseus    knew    himself 

what  manner  of  evil 
He  with  a  careless  heart  had  afore- 
time dealt  Ariadne,  — 
Fixed  Ariadne  that  still,  still  stared 
where  the  ship  had  receded,  — 
Wounded,  revolving  in  heart  her 
countless  muster  of  sorrows. 

178.  Bacchus  and  Ariadne. 

But  for  the  deserted  daughter 
of  Minos  a  happier  fate  was 
yet  reserved.  This  island,  on 
which  she  had  been  aban- 
doned, was  Naxos,  loved  and 


25S  THE.  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

especially  haunted  by  Bacchus,  where  with  his  train  of    reeling 
devotees  he  was  wont  to  hold  high  carnival. 

.  .  .  Sweeping  over  the  shore,  lo,  beautiful,  blooming  lacchus,  — 
Chorused  of  Satyrs  in  dance  and  of  Nysian-born  Sileni,  — 
Seeking  fair  Ariadne,  — •  afire  with  flame  of  a  lover ! 
Lightly  around  him  leaped  Bacchantes,  strenuous,  frenzied. 
Nodding  their  heads,  "  Euhoe  !  "  to  the  cry,  "  Euhoe,  O  Bacchus !  " 
Some  —  enwreath^d  spears  of  lacchus  madly  were  waving; 
Some  —  ensanguined  limbs  of  the  bullock,  quivering,  brandished  ; 
Some  —  were  twining  themselves  with  sinuous  snakes  that  twisted  ; 
Some  —  with  vessels  of  signs  mysterious,  passed  in  procession  — 
Symbols  profound  that  in  vain  the  profane  may  seek  to  decipher ; 
Certain  struck  with  the  palms  —  with  tapered  fingers  on  timbrels. 
Others  the  tenuous  clash  of  the  rounded  cymbals  awakened ;  — 
Brayed  with  a  raucous  roar  through  the  turmoil  many  a  trumpet, 
Many  a  stridulous  fife  went,  shrill,  barbarian,  shrieking.^ 

So  the  grieving,  much-wronged  Ariadne  was  consoled  for  the 
loss  of  her  mortal  spouse  by  an  immortal  lover.  The  blooming  god 
of  the  vine  wooed  and  won  her.  After  her  death,  the  golden  crown 
that  he  had  given  her  was  transferred  by  him  to  the  heavens.  As 
it  mounted  the  ethereal  spaces,  its  gems,  growing  in  brightness, 
became  stars  ;  and  still  it  remains  fixed,  as  a  constellation,  between 
the  kneeling  Hercules  and  the  man  that  holds  the  serpent. 

179.  The  Amazons.  As  king  of  Athens,  it  is  said  that  Theseus 
undertook  an  expedition  against  the  Amazons.  Assailing  them 
before  they  had  recovered  from  the  attack  of  Hercules,  he  carried 
off  their  queen  Antiope ;  but  they  in  turn,  invading  the  country 
of  Athens,  penetrated  into  the  city  itself ;  and  there  was  fought 
the  final  battle  in  which  Theseus  overcame  them. 

180.  Theseus  and  Pirithous.  A  famous  friendship  between 
Theseus  and  PirithoUs  of  Thessaly,  son  of  Jupiter,  originated  in 
the  midst  of  arms.  Pirithous  had  made  an  irruption  into  the  plain 
of  Marathon  and  had  carried  off  the  herds  of  the  king  of  Athens. 
Theseus  went  to  repel  the  plunderers.  The  moment  the  Thessalian 
beheld  him,  he  was  seized  with  admiration,  and  stretching  out  his 
hand  as  a  token  of  peace,  he  cried,  "Be  judge  thyself, — what 

1  Catullus,  LXIV  (Charles  Mills  Gayley's  translation). 


THE  HOUSE  OF  CECROPS  AND  ERICHTHONIUS 


259 


satisfaction  dost  thou  require  ?  "  —  "  Thy  friendship,"  replied  the 
Athenian  ;  and  they  swore  inviolable  fidelity.  Their  deeds  cor- 
responding to  their  professions,  they  continued  true  brothers  in 
arms.  When,  accordingly,  Pirithoiis  was  to  marry  Hippodamia, 
daughter  of  Atrax,  Theseus  took  his  friend's  part  in  the  battle 
that  ensued  between  the  Lapithas  (of  whom  Pirithoiis  was  king) 
and  the  Centaurs.  For  it  happened  that  at  the  marriage  feast,  the 
Centaurs  were  among  the  guests  ;  and  one  of  them,  Eurytion,  be- 
coming intoxicated,  attempted  to  offer  violence  to  the  loride.  Other 
Centaurs  followed  his  example  ;  combat  was  joined  ;  Theseus  leaped 
into  the  fray,  and  not  a      p_     ,  _      _   . 


V. 


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few  of  the  guests  bit  the 
dust. 

Later,  each  of  these 
friends  aspired  to  espouse 
a  daughter  of  Jupiter. 
Theseus  fixed  his  choice 
on  Leda's  daughter  Helen, 
then  a  child,  but  after- 
wards famous  as  the  cause 
of  the  Trojan  War ;  and 
with  the  aid  of  his  friend 
he  carried  her  off,  only, 
however,  to  restore  her 
at  very  short  notice.  As 
for  Pirithoiis,  he  aspired 
to  thejwife  of  the  monarch  of  Erebus  ;  and  Theseus,  though  aware 
of  the  danger,  accompanied  the  ambitious  lover  to  the  underworld. 
But  Pluto  seized  and  set  them  on  an  enchanted  rock  at  his  palace 
gate,  where  fixed  they  remained  till  Hercules,  arriving,  liberated 
Theseus  but  left  Pirithoiis  to  his  fate. 

181.  Phaedra  and  Hippolytus.  After  the  death  of  Antiope, 
Theseus  married  Phaedra,  sister  of  the  deserted  Ariadne,  daughter 
of  Minos.  But  Phaedra,  seeing  in  Hippolytus,  the  son  of  Theseus, 
a  youth  endowed  with  all  the  graces  and  virtues  of  his  father  and 
of  an  age  corresponding  to  her  own,  loved  him.  When,  however, 
he  repulsed  her  advances,  her  love  was  changed  to  despair  and 


Fig.  145.    Lapith  and  Centaur 


26o  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

hate.  Hanging  herself,  she  left  for  her  husband  a  scroll  containing 
false  charges  against  Hippolytus.  The  infatuated  husband,  filled, 
therefore,  with  jealousy  of  his  son,  imprecated  the  vengeance  of 
Neptune  upon  him.  As  Hippolytus  one  day  drove  his  chariot 
along  the  shore,  a  sea  monster  raised  himself  above  the  waters 
and  frightened  the  horses  so  that  they  ran  away  and  dashed  the 
chariot  to  pieces.  Hippolytus  was  killed,  but  by  yEsculapius  was 
restored  to  life,  and  then,  removed  by  Diana  from  the  power  of  his 
deluded  father,  was  placed  in  Italy  under  the  protection  of  the 
nymph  Egeria. 

In  his  old  age,  Theseus,  losing  the  favor  of  his  people,  retired 
to  the  court  of  Lycomedes,  king  of  Scyros,  who  at  first  received 
him  kindly,  but  afterwards  treacherously  put  him  to  death. 


CHAPTER  XIX 


THE  HOUSE  OF  LABDACUS 


182.  The  Misfortunes  of  Thebes.  Returning  to  the  descendants 
of  Inachus,  we  find  that  the  curse  which  fell  upon  Cadmus  when 
he  slew  the  dragon  of  Mars  followed  nearly  every  scion  of  his 
house.  His  daughters,  Semele,  Ino,  Autonoe,  Agave,  —  his  grand- 
sons, Melicertes,  Actaeon,  Pentheus,  —  lived  sorrowful  lives  or 
suffered  violent  deaths.    The 

misfortunes  of  one  branch  of 
his  family,  sprung  from  his  son 
Polydorus,  remain  to  be  told. 
The  curse  seems  to  have  spared 
Polydorus  himself.  His  son 
Labdacus,  also,  lived  a  quiet 
life  as  king  of  Thebes  and  left 
a  son,  Lai'us,  upon  the  throne. 
But  erelong  Laius  was  warned 
by  an  oracle  that  there  was  dan- 
ger to  his  throne  and  life  if 
his  son,  new-born,  should  reach 
man's  estate.  He,  therefore, 
committed  the  child  to  a  herds- 
man with  orders  for  its  destruction  ;  but  the  herdsman,  moved 
with  pity  yet  not  daring  entirely  to  disobey,  pierced  the  child's 
feet,  purposing  to  expose  him  to  the  elements  on  Mount  Cithaeron. 

183.  CEdipus  and  the  Sphinx. ^  In  this  plight  the  infant  was 
given  to  a  tender-hearted  fellow-shepherd,  who  carried  him  to 
King  Polybus  of  Corinth  and  his  queen,  by  whom  he  was  adopted 
and  called  CEdipus,  or  Swollen-foot. 

1  Sophocles,  CEdipus  Rex,  CEdipus  Coloneus,  Antigone  ;  Euripides,  Phoenissas  ;  Apollo- 
dorus,  3,  5,  §§  7,  8. 

261 


Fig.  146.    OiDipus  and  the  Sphinx 


262  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Many  years  afterward,  QEdipus,  learning  from  an  oracle  that  he 
was  destined  to  be  the  death  of  his  father,  left  the  realm  of  his 
reputed  sire,  Polybus.  It  happened,  however,  that  Laius  was  then 
driving  to  Delphi,  accompanied  only  by  one  attendant.  In  a  narrow 
road  he  met  CEdipus,  also  in  a  chariot.  On  the  refusal  of  the  youth- 
ful stranger  to  leave  the  way  at  their  command,  the  attendant  killed 
one  of  his  horses.  CEdipus,  consumed  with  rage,  slew  both  Lai'us 
and  the  attendant,  and  thus  unknowingly  fulfilled  both  oracles. 

Shortly  after  this  event,  the  city  of  Thebes,  to  which  CEdipus 
had  repaired,  was  afflicted  with  a  monster  that  infested  the  high- 
road. She  was  called  the  Sphinx.  She  had  the  body  of  a  lion  and 
the  upper  part  of  a  woman.  She  lay  crouched  on  the  top  of  a  rock 
and,  arresting  all  travelers  who  came  that  way,  propounded  to 
them  a  riddle,  with  the  condition  that  those  who  could  solve  it 
should  pass  safe,  but  those  who  failed  should  be  killed.  Not  one 
had  yet  succeeded  in  guessing  it.  CEdipus,  not  daunted  by  these 
alarming  accounts,  boldly  advanced  to  the  trial.  The  Sphinx  asked 
him,  "  What  animal  is  it  that  in  the  morning  goes  on  four  feet,  at 
noon  on  two,  and  in  the  evening  upon  three  .''  "  CEdipus  replied, 
"  Man,  who  in  childhood  creeps  on  hands  and  knees,  in  manhood 
walks  erect,  and  in  old  age  goes  with  the  aid  of  a  staff."  The 
Sphinx,  mortified  at  the  collapse  of  her  riddle,  cast  herself  down 
from  the  rock  and  perished. 

184.  (Edipus,  the  King.  In  gratitude  for  their  deliverance,  the 
Thebans  made  CEdipus  their  king,  giving  him  in  marriage  their 
queen,  Jocasta.  He,  ignorant  of  his  parentage,  had  already  become 
the  slayer  of  his  father ;  in  marrying  the  queen  he  became  the 
husband  of  his  mother.  These  horrors  remairfed  undiscovered  till, 
after  many  years,  Thebes  being  afflicted  with  famine  and  pestilence, 
the  oracle  was  consulted,  and,  by  a  series  of  coincidences,  the  double 
crime  of  CEdipus  came  to  light.  At  once,  Jocasta  put  an  end  to 
her  life  by  hanging  herself.    As  for  CEdipus,  horror-struck,  — 

When  her  form 
He  saw,  poor  wretch !  with  one  wild  fearful  cry, 
The  twisted  rope  he  loosens,  and  she  fell, 
Ill-starred  one,  on  the  ground.    Then  came  a  sight 
Most  fearful.    Tearing  from  her  robe  the  clasps, 


THE  HOUSE  OF  LABDACUS  263 

All  chased  with  gold,  with  which  she  decked  herself, 
He  with  them  struck  the  pupils  of  his  eyes, 
With  words  like  these :  "  Because  they  had  not  seen 
What  ills  he  suffered,  and  what  ills  he  did. 
They  in  the  dark  should  look,  in  time  to  come, 
On  those  whom  they  ought  never  to  have  seen, 
Nor  know  the  dear  ones  whom  he  fain  had  known." 
With  suchlike  wails,  not  once  or  twice  alone, 
Raising  his  eyes  he  smote  them,  and  the  balls, 
AH  bleeding,  stained  his  cheek. ^ 

185.  CEdipus  at  Colonus.  After  these  sad  events  QEdipus  would 
have  left  Thebes,  but  the  oracle  forbade  the  people  to  let  him  go. 
Jocasta's  brother,  Creon,  was  made  regent  of  the  realm  for  the  two 
sons  of  CEdipus.  But  after  CEdipus  had  grown  content  to  stay, 
these  sons  of  his,  with  Creon,  thrust  him  into  exile.  Accompanied 
by  his  daughter  Antigone,  he  went  begging  through  the  land.  His 
other  daughter,  Ismene,  at  first  stayed  at  home.  Cursing  the  sons 
who  had  abandoned  him,  but  bowing  his  own  will  in  submission  to 
the  ways  of  God,  CEdipus  approached  the  hour  of  his  death  in 
Colonus,  a  village  near  Athens,  His  friend  Theseus,  king  of 
Athens,  comforted  and  sustained  him  to  the  last.  Both  his  daugh- 
ters were  also  with  him  : 

And  then  he  called  his  girls,  and  bade  them  fetch 
Clear  water  from  the  stream,  and  bring  to  him 
For  cleansing  and  libation.    And  they  went, 
Both  of  them,  to  yon  hill  we  look  upon, 
Owned  by  Demeter  of  the  fair  green  corn, 
And  quickly  did  his  bidding,  bathed  his  limbs, 
And  clothed  them  in  the  garment  that  is  meet. 
And  when  he  had  his  will  in  all  they  did. 
And  not  one  wish  continued  unfulfilled, 
Zeus  from  the  dark  depths  thundered,  and  the  girls 
Heard  it,  and  shuddering,  at  their  father's  knees. 
Falling  they  wept ;   nor  did  they  then  forbear 
Smiting  their  breasts,  nor  gi'oanings  lengthened  out ; 
And  when  he  heard  their  bitter  cry,  forthwith 
Folding  his  arms  around  them,  thus  he  spake : 
"  My  children,  on  this  day  ye  cease  to  have 

1  Sophocles,  CEdipus,  the  King  (E.  H.  Plumptre's  translation). 


264  'I'HE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

A  father.    All  my  days  are  spent  and  gone ; 
And  ye  no  more  shall  lead  your  wretched  life, 
Caring  for  me.    Hard  was  it,  that  I  know, 
My  children  !    Yet  one  word  is  strong  to  loose. 
Although  alone,  the  burden  of  these  toils, 
For  lo7>e  in  larger  store  ye  could  not  have 
From  any  than  from  him  who  standeth  here. 
Of  whom  bereaved  ye  now  shall  live  your  life."  ^ 

There  was  sobbing,  then  silence.  Then  a  voice  called  him,  — 
and  he  followed.  God  took  him  from  his  troubles.  Antigone 
returned  to  Thebes,  —  where,  as  we  shall  see,  her  sisterly  fidelity 
showed  itself  as  true  as,  aforetime,  her  filial  affection. 

Her  brothers,  Etgocles  and  Polynices,  had  meanwhile  agreed  to 
share  the  kingdom  between  them  and  to  reign  alternately  year  by 
year.  The  first  year  fell  to  the  lot  of  Eteocles,  who,  when  his 
time  expired,  refused  to  surrender  the  kingdom  to  his  brother. 
Polynices,  accordingly,  fled_to  Adrastus,  king  of  Argos,  who  gave 
him  his  daughter  in  marriage  and  aided  him  with  an  army  to 
enforce  his  claim  to  the  kingdom.  These  causes  led  to  the^cele- 
brated  expedition  of  the  "  Seven  against  Thebes,"  which  furnished 
ample  materials  for  the  epic  and  tragic  poets  of  Greece.  AnH 
here  the  younger  heroes  of  Greece  make  their  appearance. 

1  Sophocles,  CEdipus  at  Colonus,  11.  1600,  etc.  (E.  H.  Plumptre's  translation). 


CHAPTER  XX 

MYTHS  OF  THE  YOUNGER  HEROES  :  THE  SEVEN 
AGAINST  THEBES 

186.  Their  Exploits.  The  exploits  of  the  sons  and  grandsons 
of  the  chieftains  engaged  in  the  Calydonian  Hunt  and  the  Quest 
of  the  Golden  Fleece  are  narrated  in  four  stories,  —  the  Seven 
against  Thebes,  the  Siege  of  Troy,  the  Wanderings  of  Ulysses, 
and  the  Adventures  of  ^neas. 

187.  The  Seven  against  Thebes.^  The  allies  of  Adrastus  and 
Polynices  in  the  enterprise  against  Thebes  were  Tydeus  of  Caly- 
don,  half  brother  of  Meleager,  Parthenopaeus  of  Arcadia,  son  of 
Atalanta  and  Mars,  Capaneus  of  Argos,  Hippomedon  of  Argos,  and 
Amphiaraiis,  the  brother-in-law  of  Adrastus.  Amphiaraiis  opposed 
the  expedition  for,  being  a  soothsayer,  he  knew  that  none  of  the 
leaders  except  Adrastus  would  live  to  return  from  Thebes  ;  but  on 
his  marriage  to  Eriphyle,  the  king's  sister,  he  had  agreed  that 
whenever  he  and  Adrastus  should  differ  in  opinion,  the  decision 
should  be  left  to  Eriphyle.  Polynices,  knowing  this,  gave  Eriphyle 
the  necklace  of  Harmonia  and  thereby  gained  her  to  his  interest. 
This  was  the  selfsame  necklace  that  Vulcan  had  given  to  Har- 
monia on  her  marriage  with  Cadmus;  Polynices  had  taken. it  with 
him  on  his  flight  from  Thebes.  It  seems  to  have  been  still  fraught 
with  the  curse  of  the  house  of  Cadmus.  But  Eriphyle  could  not 
resist  so  tempting  a  bribe.  By  her  decision  the  war  was  resolved 
on,  and  Amphiaraiis  went  to  his  fate.  He  bore  his  part  bravely 
in  the  contest,  but  still  could  not  avert  his  destiny.  While,  pur- 
sued by  the  enemy,  he  was  fleeing  along  the  river,  a  thunderbolt 
launched  by  Jupiter  opened  the  ground,  and  he,  his  chariot,  and 
his  charioteer  were  swallowed  up. 

1  ^schylus,  Seven  against  Thebes ;  Euripides,  Phoenissas ;  Apollodorus,  3.  6  and  7  ; 
Hyginus,  Fab.  69,  70  ;  Pausanias,  8  and  9  ;  Statius,  Thebaid. 

265 


266 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


It  is  unnecessary  here  to  detail  all  the  acts  of  heroism  or  atroc- 
ity which  marked  this  contest.  The  fidelity,  however,  of  Evadne 
stands  out  as  an  offset  to  the  weakness  of  Eriphyle.  Her  hus- 
band, Capaneus,  having  in  the  ardor  of  the  fight  declared  that  he 
would  force  his  way  into  the  cit)'  in  spite  of  Jove  himself,  placed 
a  ladder  against  the  wall  and  mounted ;  but  Jupiter,  offended  at 
his  impious  language,  struck  him  with  a  thunderbolt.  When  his 
obsequies  were  celebrated,  Evadne  cast  herself  on  his  funeral  pile 
and  perished. 

It  seems  that  early  in  the  contest  Eteocles  consulted  the  sooth- 
sayer Tiresias  as  to  the  issue.  Now,  this  Tiresias  in  his  youth  had 
by  chance  seen  Minerva  bathing,  and  had  been  deprived  by  her 
of  his  sight,  but  aftenvards  had  obtained  of  her  the  knowledge  of 

future  events.  When 
consulted  by  Eteocles, 
he  declared  that  vic- 
tory should  fall  to 
Thebes  if  Menoeceus, 
the  son  of  Creon,  gave' 
himself  a  voluntary  vic- 
tim. The  heroic  youth, 
learning  the  response, 
threw  away  his  life  in 
the  first  encounter. 

The  siege  continued 
long,  with  varying  suc- 
cess. At  length  both 
hosts  agreed  that  the  brothers  should  decide  their  quarrel  by  single 
combat.  They  fought,  and  fell  each  by  the  hand  of  the  other.  The 
armies  then  renewed  the  fight ;  and  at  last  the  invaders  were  forced 
to  yield,  and  fled,  leaving  their  dead  unburied.  Creon,  the  uncle  of 
the  fallen  princes,  now  became  king,  caused  Eteocles  to  be  buried 
with  distinguished  honor,  but  suffered  the  body  of  Polynices  to  lie 
where  it  fell,  forbidding  any  one,  on  pain  of  death,  to  give  it  burial. 
188.  Antigone,^  the  sister  of  Polynices,  heard  with  indigna- 
tion the  revolting  edict  which,  consigning  her  brother's  body  to 

1  Sophocles,  Antigone ;  Euripides,  Suppliants. 


Fig. 


147. 


Eteocles  and  Polynices  kill 
each  other 


YOUNGER  HEROES:  THE  SEVEN  AGAINST  THEBES    267 

the  dogs  and  vultures,  deprived  it  of  the  rites  that  were  consid- 
ered essential  to  the  repose  of  the  dead.  Unmoved  by  the  dis- 
suading counsel  of  her  affectionate  but  timid  sister,  and  unable  to 
procure  assistance,  she  determined  to  brave  the  hazard  and  to 
bury  the  body  with  her  own  hands.  She  was  detected  in  the  act. 
When  Creon  asked  the  fearless  woman  whether  she  dared  disobey 
the  laws,  she  answered  : 

Yes,  for  it  was  not  Zeus  who  gave  them  forth, 

Nor  justice,  dwelling  with  the  gods  below. 

Who  traced  these  laws  for  all  the  sons  of  men ; 

Nor  did  I  deem  thy  edicts  strong  enough, 

That  thou,  a  mortal  man,  should'st  overpass 

The  unvv'ritten  laws  of  God  that  know  no  change. 

They  are  not  of  to-day  nor  yesterday. 

But  live  forever,  nor  can  man  assign 

When  first  they  sprang  to  being.    Not  through  fear 

Of  any  man's  resolve  was  I  prepared 

Before  the  gods  to  bear  the  penalty 

Of  sinning  against  these.    That  I  should  die 

I  knew  (how  should  I  not  ?),  though  thy  decree 

Had  never  spoken.   And  before  my  time 

If  I  shall  die,  I  reckon  this  a  gain ; 

For  whoso  lives,  as  I, -in  many  woes. 

How  can  it  be  but  he  shall  gain  by  death.? 

And  so  for  me  to  bear  this  doom  of  thine 

Has  nothing  fearful.    But,  if  I  had  left 

My  mother's  son  unburied  on  his  death. 

In  that  I  should  have  suffered ;  but  in  this 

I  suffer  not.^ 

Creon,  unyielding  and  unable  to  conceive  of  a  law  higher  than  that 
he  knew,  gave  orders  that  she  should  be  buried  alive,  as  having 
deliberately  set  at  nought  the  solemn  edict  of  the  city.  Her  lover, 
Hasmon,  the  son  of  Creon,  unable  to  avert  her  fate,  would  not 
survive  her,  and  fell  by  his  own  hand.  It  is  only  after  his  son's 
death  and  as  he  gazes  upon  the  corpses  of  the  lovers,  that  the 
aged  Creon  recognizes  the  insolence  of  his  narrow  judgment. 
And  those  that  stand  beside  him  say  : 

1  Sophocles,  Antigone,  11.  450-470  (E.  H.  Plumptre's  translation). 


268  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Man's  highest  blessedness 

In  wisdom  chiefly  stands; 
And  in  the  things  that  touch  upon  the  gods, 

'T  is  best  in  word  or  deed, 

To  shun  unholy  pride ; 
Great  words  of  boasting  bring  great  punishments. 

And  so  to  gray-haired  age 

Teach  wisdom  at  the  last.^ 

189.  The  Epigoni.2  Such  was  the  fall  of  the  house  of  Labdacus. 
The  bane  of  Cadmus  expires  with  the  family  of  CEdipus.  But  the 
wedding  gear  of  Harmonia  has  not  yet  fulfilled  its  baleful  mission. 
Amphiaraiis  had,  with  his  last  breath,  enjoined  his  son  Alcmaeon 
to  avenge  him  on  the  faithless  Eriphyle.  Alcmaeon  engaged  his 
word,  but  before  accomplishing  the  fell  purpose,  he  was  ordered 
by  an  oracle  of  Delphi  to  conduct  against  Thebes  a  new  expedition. 
Thereto  his  mother  Eriphyle,  influenced  by  Thersander,  the  son 
of  Polynices,  and  bribed  this  time  by  the  gift  of  Harmonia's  wed- 
ding garment,  impelled  not  only  Alcmaeon  but  her  other  son, 
Amphilochus,  The_descendants  {Epigo7ii)  of  the  former  Seven 
thus  renewed  the  war  against  Thebes.  They  leveled  the  city  to  the 
ground.  Its  inhabitants,  counseled  by  Tiresias,  took  refuge  in  for- 
eign lands.  Tiresias  himself  perished  during  the  flight,  Alcmaeon, 
returning  to  Argos,  put  his  mother  to  death  but,  in  consequence, 
repeated  in  his  own  experience  the  penalty  of  Orestes,  The  outfit 
of  Harmonia  preserved  its  malign  influence  until,  at  last,  it  was 
devoted  to  the  temple  at  Delphi  and  removed  from  the  sphere  of 

mortal  jealousies, 

J 

1  Sophocles,  Antigone,  closing  chorus.  I 

2  Pausanias,  9,  9,  §§  2,  3  ;  Herodotus,  5,  61  ;  Apoiiodorus. 


CHAPTER  XXI 
HOUSES  CONCERNED  IN  THE  TROJAN  WAR 

190.  Three  Families.  Before  entering  upon  the  causes  of  the  war 
against  Troy,  we  must  notice  the  three  Grecian  famihes  that  were 
principally  concerned,  —  those  of  Peleus,  Atreus,  and  Tyndareus. 

191.  Peleus^  was  the  son  of  y^Eacus  and  grandson  of  Jove,  It 
was  for  his  father  yEacus,  king  of  Phthia  in  Thessaly,  that,  as  we 
have  seen,  an  army  of  Myrmidons  was  created  by  Jupiter.  Peleus 
joined  the  expedition  of  the  Argonauts,  and  on  that  journey  beheld 
and  fell  in  love  with  the  sea-nymph  Thetis,  daughter  of  Nereus 
and  Doris.  Such  was  the  beauty  of  the  nymph  that  Jupiter  him- 
self had  sought  her  in  marriage  ;  but  having  learned  from  Pro- 
metheus, the  Titan,  that  Thetis  should  bear  a  son  who  should  be 
greater  than  his  father,  the  Olympian  desisted  from  his  suit  and 
decreed  that  Thetis  should  be  the  wife  of  a  mortal.  By  the  aid  of 
Chiron,  the  Centaur,  Peleus  succeeded  in  winning  the  goddess  for 
his  bride.  In  this  marriage,  to  be  productive  of  momentous  results 
for  mortals,  the  immortals  manifested  a  lively  interest.  They 
thronged  with  the  Thessalians  to  the  wedding  in  Pharsalia ;  they 
honored  the  wedding  feast  with  their  presence  and,  reclining  on 
ivory  couches,  gave  ear  while  the  three  Sisters  of  Fate,  in  respon- 
sive strain,  chanted  the  fortunes  of  Achilles,  —  the  future  hero 
of  the  Trojan  War,  —  the  son  that  should  spring  from  this  union 
of  a  goddess  with  a  mortal.  The  following  is  from  a  translation  of 
the  famous  poem.  The  Wedding  of  Peleus  and  Thetis  :  ^ 

.  .  .  Now,  on  the  day  foreset,  Aurora  forsaking  the  ocean 
Crimsons  the  orient  sky :  all  Thessaly,  seeking  the  palace, 
Fares  to  the  royal  seat,  in  populous  muster  exultant, 
Heavy  of  hand  with  gifts,  but  blithesome  of  cheer  for  the  joyance. 

1  Ovid,  Metam.  ii,  221-265;  Catullus,  LXIV;  Hyginus,  Fab.  14;  Apollonius  Rhodius. 
Argon.  I,  558;  Valerius  Flaccus,  Argon.;  Statius,  Achilleid. 

2  Catullus,  LXIV  (Charles  Mills  Gayley's  translation). 

269 


270  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Scyros  behind  they  leave,  they  leave  Phthiotican  Tempe, 
Crannon's  glittering  domes  and  the  battlements  Larissaean, 
Cumber  Pharsalia,  throng  the  abodes  and  the  streets  of  Pharsalus. 
Fields,  meanwhile  are  untilled,  grow  tender  the  necks  of  the  oxen, 
None  with  the  curving  teeth  of  the  harrow  cleareth  the  vineyard. 
None  upturneth  the  glebe  with  bull  and  the  furrowing  plowshare. 
None  with  gardener's  knife  lets  light  through  the  branches  umbrageous ; 
Squalid  the  rust  creeps  up  o'er  plows  forgotten  of  plowmen. 

Bright  is  the  palace,  ay,  through  far  retreating  recesses 
Blazing  for  sheen  benign  of  the  opulent  gold  and  the  silver : 
Ivory  gleams  on  the  thrones,  great  goblets  glint  on  the  tables, 
Glitters  the  spacious  home,  made  glad  with  imperial  splendor,  — 
Ay,  but  most — in  the  hall  midmost  — -is  the  couch  of  the  goddess, 
Glorious,  made  of  the  tusk  of  the  Indian  elephant  —  polished  — 
Spread  with  a  wonder  of  quilt  empurpled  with  dye  of  the  sea-shell. 

On  this  coverlet  of  purple  were  embroidered  various  scenes  illus- 
trating the  lessons  of  heroism  and  justice  that  the  poet  would 
inculcate  :  to  the  good  f alleth  good  ;  to  the  evil,  evil  speedily. 
Therefore,  the  story  of  Theseus  and  Ariadne,  which  has  already 
been  recounted,  was  here  displayed  in  cunning  handiwork.  For 
Theseus,  the  false  lover,  bold  of  hand  but  bad  of  heart,  gained  by 
retributive  justice  undying  ruth  and  misery ;  whereas  Ariadne,  the 
injured  and  innocent,  restored  to  happiness,  won  no  less  a  reward 
than  Bacchus  himself.  Gorgeously  woven  with  such  antique  and 
heroic  figures  was  the  famous  quilt  upon  the  couch  of  Thetis.  For 
a  season  the  wedding  guests  feasted  their  eyes  upon  it. 

Then  when  Thessaly's  youth,  long  gazing,  had  of  the  wonder 

Their  content,  they  gan  give  place  to  the  lords  of  Olympus. 

As  when  Zephyr  awakes  the  recumbent  billows  of  ocean. 

Roughens  the  placid  deep  with  eager  breath  of  the  morning. 

Urges  the  waves,  and  impels,  to  the  threshold  of  journeying  Phoebus,  — 

They,  at  first,  blown  outward  unroughly  when  Dawn  is  a-rising, 

Limp  slow-footed,  and  loiter  with  laughter  lightsomely  plashing, 

But,  with  the  freshening  gale,  creep  quicker  and  thicker  together, 

Till  on  horizon  they  float  refulgent  of  luminous  purple,  — 

So  from  the  portal  withdrawing  the  pomp  Thessalian  departed 

Faring  on  world-wide  ways  to  the  far-off  homes  of  their  fathers- 


HOUSES  CONCERNED  IN  THE  TROJAN  WAR       271 

Now  when  they  were  aloof,  drew  nigh  from  Pelion's  summit 
Chiron  bearing  gifts  from  copses  and  glades  of  the  woodland  — 
Gifts  that  the  meadows  yield :   what  flowers  on  Thessaly's  mountains, 
Or,  by  waves  of  the  stream,  the  prolific  breath  of  the  West  Wind, 
Warming,  woos  to  the  day,  all  such  in  bunches  assorted 
Bore  he.    Flattered  with  odors  the  whole  house  brake  into  laughter. 
Came  there  next  Pencils,  abandoning  verdurous  Tempe  — 
Tempe  embowered  deep  mid  superimpendent  forests. 

A 
And  after  the  river-god.  who  bore  with  him  nodding  plane  trees 
and  lofty  beeches,  straight  slim  laurels,  the  lithe  poplar,  and  the 
airy  cypress  to  plant  about  the  palace  that  thick  foliage  might  give 
it  shade,  followed  Prometheus,  the  bold  and  cunning  of  heart, 
wearing  still  the  marks  of  his  ancient  punishment  on  the  rocks  of 


Fig.  148.   The  Gods  bring  Wedding  Gifts 

Caucasus.  Finally  the  father  of  the  gods  himself  came,  with  his 
holy  spouse  and  his  offspring,  —  all,  save  Phoebus  and  his  one 
sister,  who  naturally  looked  askance  upon  a  union  to  be  productive 
of  untold  misfortune  to  their  favored  town  of  Troy. 


.  .   .  When  now  the  gods  had  reclined  their  limbs  on  the  ivory  couches, 

Viands  many  and  rare  were  heaped  on  the  banqueting  tables. 

Whilst  the  decrepit  Sisters  of  Fate,  their  tottering  bodies 

Solemnly  swayed,  and  rehearsed  their  soothfast  vaticination. 

—  Lo,  each  tremulous  frame  was  wrapped  in  robe  of  a  whiteness, 

Down  to  the  ankles  that  fell,  with  nethermost  border  of  purple. 

While  on  ambrosial  brows  there  rested  fillets  like  snowflakes. 

They,  at  a  task  eternal  their  hands  religiously  plying. 

Held  in  the  left  on  high,  with  wool  enfolded,  a  distaff. 

Delicate  fibers  wherefrom,  drawn  down,  were  shaped  by  the  right  hand  — 

Shaped  by  fingers  upturned,  —  but  the  down-turned  thumb  set  a-whirling, 


272  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Poised  with  perfected  whorl,  the  industrious  shaft  of  the  spindle. 
Still,  as  they  span,  as  they  span,  was  the  tooth  kept  nipping  and  smoothing, 
And  to  the  withered  lip  dung  morsels  of  wool  as  they  smoothed  it  — 
Filaments  erstwhile  rough  that  stood  from  the  twist  of  the  surface. 
Close  at  their  feet,  meantime,  were  woven  baskets  of  wicker 
Guarding  the  soft  white  balls  of  the  wool  resplendent  within  them. 
Thus  then,  parting  the  strands,  these  Three  with  resonant  voices 
Uttered,  in  chani  divine,  predestined  sooth  of  the  future  — 
Prophecy  neither  in  time,  nor  yet  in  eternity,  shaken. 

"  Thou  that  exaltest  renown  of  thy  name  with  the  name  of  thy  valor. 
Bulwark  Emathian,  blest  above  sires  in  the  offspring  of  promise. 
Hear  with  thine  ears  this  day  what  oracles  fall  from  the  Sisters 
Chanting  the  fates  for  thee ;  —  but  you,  ye  destiny-drawing 
Spindles,  hasten  the  threads  of  the  destinies  set  for  the  future ! 

"  Rideth  the  orb  upon  high  that  heralds  boon  unto  bridegrooms  — 
Hesperus,  —  cometh  anon  with  star  propitious  the  virgin, 
Speedeth  thy  soul  to  subdue  —  submerge  it  with  love  at  the  flood  tide. 
Hasten,  ye  spindles,  and  run,  yea,  gallop,  ye  thread-running  spindles ! 

"  Erstwhile,  never  a  home  hath  roofed  like  generous  loving. 
Never  before  hath  Love  conjoined  lovers  so  dearly,  — 
Never  with  harmony  such  as  endureth  for  Thetis  and  Peleus. 
Hasten,  ye  spindles,  and  run,  yea,  gallop,  ye  thread-running  spindles ! 

"  Born  unto  you  shall  be  the  undaunted  heart  of  Achilles, 
Aye  by  his  brave  breast  known,  unknown  by  his  back  to  the  foeman,  — 
Victor  in  onslaught,  victor  in  devious  reach  of  the  race-course. 
Fleeter  of  foot  than  feet  of  the  stag  that  lighten  and  vanish,  — 
Hasten,  ye  spindles,  and  run,  yea,  gallop,  ye  thread-running  spindles !  " 

192.  Achilles,  Son  of  Peleus.  So  the  sisters  prophesied  the 
future  of  the  hero,  Achilles,  —  from  his  father  called  Pelides  ; 
from  his  grandfather,  yEacides.  How  by  him  the  Trojans  should 
fall,  as  fall  the  ears  of  corn  when  they  are  yellow  before  the 
scythe  ;  how  because  of  him  Scamander  should  run  red,  warm  with 
blood,  choked  with  blind  bodies,  into  the  whirling  Hellespont ; 
how  finally  he  himself,  in  his  prime,  should  fall,  and  how  on  his 
tomb  should  be  sacrificed  the  fair  Polyxena,  daughter  of  Priam, 
whom  he  had  loved,  "So,"  says  Catullus,  ""  sang  the  Fates.  For 
those  were  the  days  before  piety  and  righteous  action  were  spurned 


HOUSES  CONCERNED  IN  THE  TROJAN  WAR       273 

by  mankind,  the  days  when  Jupiter  and  his  immortals  deigned  to 
consort  with  zealous  man,  to  enjoy  the  sweet  odor  of  his  burnt- 
offering,  to  march  beside  him  to  battle,  to  swell  his  shout  in  victory 
and  his  lament  in  defeat,  to  smile  on  his  peaceful  harvests,  to 


THE  TIIOAD 

AND  THE 

HEI^IjESPONT 


V:-'iw^^»^^ 


Fig.  149 

recline  at  his  banquets,  and  to  bless  the  weddings  of  fair  women 
and  goodly  heroes.  But  now,  alas,"  concludes  Catullus,  "  godliness 
and  chastity,  truth,  wisdom,  and  honor  have  departed  from  among 
men  "  : 

Wherefore  the  gods  no  more  vouchsafe  their  presence  to  mortals, 
Suffer  themselves  no  more  to  be  touched  by  the  ray  of  the  morning. 
But  there  were  gods  in  the  pure,  —  in  the  golden  prime  of  the  Ages. 


2  74  'i'HE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

The  hero  of  the  Trojan  War,  here  prophesied,  Achilles,  fleet  of 
foot,  the  dauntless,  the  noble,  the  beloved  of  Zeus,  the  breaker  of  the 
ranks  of  men,  is  the  ideal  hero  of  the  Greeks,  — the  mightiest  of  the 
Achaeans  far.  Of  his  youth  many  interesting  stories  are  told  :  how 
his  mother,  endeavoring  to  make  him  invulnerable,  plunged  him  in 
the  river  Styx,  and  succeeded  save  with  regard  to  his  ankles  by  which 
she  held  him ;  and  how  he  was  educated  in  eloquence  and  the 
arts  of  war  by  his  father's  friend  Phoenix,  and  by  his  father's  other 
friend  Chiron,  the  centaur,  in  riding  and  hunting  and  music  and  the 
art  of  healing.  One  of  the  most  Greek-minded  of  our  English  poets, 
Matthew  Arnold,^  singing  of  a  beauteous  dell  by  Etna,  tells  how 


In  such  a  glen,  on  such  a  day, 

On  Pelion,  on  the  grassy  ground, 

Chiron,  the  aged  Centaur,  lay, 

The  young  Achilles  standing  by.  A/^^^^ 

The  Centaur  taught  him  to  explore  ^J    i , 

The  mountains ;  where  the  glens  are  dry 

And  the  tired  Centaurs  come  to  rest, 

And  where  the  soaking  springs  abound 

And  the  straight  ashes  grow  for  spears, 

And  where  the  hill  goats  come  to  feed 

And  the  sea  eagles  build  their  nest. 

He  showed  him  Phthia  far  away. 

And  said,  "  O  boy,  I  taught  this  lore 

To  Peleus,  in  long  distant  years  !  " 

Pie  told  him  of  the  gods,  the  stars, 

The  tides ;  —  and  then  of  mortal  wars, 

And  of  the  life  which  heroes  lead 

Before  they  reach  the  Elysian  place 

And  rest  in  the  immortal  mead ; 

And  all  the  wisdom  of  his.  race. 

Upon  the  character  of  Achilles,  outspoken,  brave,  impulsive ;  to 
his  friends  passionately  devoted,  to  his  foes  implacable  ;  lover  of  war 
and  lover  of  home ;  inordinately  ambitious  but  submissive  to  di- 
vine decree  ;  —  upon  this  handsome,  gleaming,  terrible,  glooming, 
princely  warrior  of  his  race,  the  poet  of  the  Iliad  delights  to  dwell, 
and  .the  world  has  delighted  in  the  portraiture  from  that  day  to  this. 

1  Empedocles  on  Etna. 


HOUSES  CONCERNED  IN  THE  TROJAN  WAR      275 

193.  Atreus  was  the  son  of  Pelops  and  Hippodamia  and  grand- 
son of  Xantalus,  therefore  great-grandson  of  Jove.    Both  by  blood 
and  by  rrtarriage  he  was  connected  with  Theseus.    He  took  to  wife 
Aerope,  granddaughter  of  Minos  II,  king  of  Crete,  and  by  her 
had  two  sons,  Agamemnon,  the  general  of  the  Grecian  army  in 
the  Trojan  War,  and  Menelaiis,  at  whose  solicitation  the  war  was 
undertaken.    Of  Atreus  it  may  be  said  that  with  cannibal  atrocity 
like  that  of  his  grandsire,  Tantalus,  he  on  one  occasion  wreaked     j\ 
his  vengeance  on  a  brother,  Thyestes,  by  causing  him  to  eat  the    j  j 
flesh  of  two  of  his  own  children.   A  son  of  this  Thyestes,  yEgisthus  H 
by  name,  revived  in  due  time  against  Agamemnon  the  treacherous  ? 
feud  that  had  existed  betw^een  their  fathers. 

194.  Tyndareus  was  king  of  Lacedaemon  (Sparta).  His  wife 
was  Leda,  daughter  of  Thestius  of  Calydon,  and  sister  of  Althaea, 
the  mother  of  Meleager  and  Dejanira.  To  Tyndareus  Leda  bore 
Castor  and  Clytemnestra  ;  to  Jove  she  bore  Pollux  and  Helen.  The 
two  former  were  mortal ;  the  two  latter,  immortal.  Clytemnestra 
was  married  to  Agamemnon  of  Mycenae,  to  whom  she  bore  Elcc- 
tra,  Iphigenia,  Chrysothemis,  and  Orestes.  Helen,  the  fair  imme- 
diate cause  of  the  Trojan  War,  became  the  wife  of  Menelaiis,  who 
with  her  obtained  the  kingdom  of  Sparta. 

Of  the  families  of  Peleus,  Atreus,  and  Tyndareus,  the  gene- 
alogies will  be  found  in  the  Commentary  corresponding  with  these 
sections  of  the  stor}- ;  also  the  genealog)^  of  Ulysses,  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  Greek  army  during  the  war  and  the  hero  of  the 
Odyssey,  which  narrates  his  subsequent  adventures  ;  and  that  of 
the  royal  family  of  Troy  against  whom  the  war  was  undertaken. 
A  slight  study  of  these  family  trees  will  reveal  interesting  relation- 
ships between  the  principal  participants  in  the  war.  For  instance  : 
that  the  passionate  Achilles  and  the  intolerant  Ajax,  second  only 
to  Achilles  in  military  prowess,  are  first  cousins ;  and  that  the 
family  of  Ajax  is  connected  by  marriage  with  that  of  the  Trojan 
Hector,  whom  he  meets  in  combat.  That  Ulysses  is  a  distant 
cousin  of  his  wife  Penelope  and  of  Clytemnestra,  the  wife  of 
Agamemnon ;  and  that  he  is  a  kinsman  of  Patroclus,  the  bosom 
friend  of  Achilles.  In  the  family  of  Tyndareus  we  note  most  the 
tragic  and  romantic  careers  of  the  women,  —  Clytemnestra,  who 


276  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

murdered  her  husbaiid  and  married  his  cousin  y^gisthus ;  Helen, 
whose  beauty  provoked  war  between  her  two  husbands  and  their 
races ;  Penelope,  whose  fidelity  to  her  absent  lord  is  the  marvel  of 
the  Odyssey.  It  will  be  noticed,  too,  that  the  daughter  of  Helen, 
Hermione,  is  strangely  enough  married  first  by  the  son  of  Achilles 
and,  afterwards,  by  the  son  of  Agamemnon,  and  so  becomes  sister- 
in-law  to  her  noble  cousins,  Electra  and  Iphigenia. 

The  kinsmen  and  descendants  of  Peleus  — -  Telamon,  Ajax, 
Teucer,  Achilles,  Neoptolemus — -are  characterized  by  their  per- 
sonal valor,  their  intolerant  and  resentful  temper.  In  the  family  of 
Atreus,  the  men  are  remarkable  for  their  kingly  attributes ;  the 
principal  women  for  their  unwavering  devotion  to  religious  duty. 
The  members  of  the  royal  family  of  Troy  are  of  richly  varied  and 
most  unusual  individuality :  like  Tithonus  and  Memnon,  Paris, 
Hesione,  Cassandra  and  Polyxena,  poetic  and  pathetic ;  like  Laom- 
edon,  Priam,  Hector  and  Troilus,  patriotic,  persistent  in  the  face 
of  overwhelming  odds ;  but  all  fated  to  a  dolorous  end.  Of 
those  engaged  in  the  Trojan  War,  ^neas  and  his  aged  father, 
Anchises,  beloved  of  Venus,  are  practically  the  only  survivors  to  a 
happier  day. 


Flu.  150.    Helen  Persuaded 


CHAPTER  XXII 


THE  TROJAN  WAR 


...  At  length  I  saw  a  lady  within  call, 

Stiller  than  chisel'd  marble,  standing  there : 

A  daughter  of  the  gods,  divinely  tall, 
And  most  divinely  fair. 

Her  loveliness  with  shame  and  with  surprise 
Froze  my  swift  speech :  she  turning  on  my  face 

The  starlike  sorrows  of  immortal  eyes, 
Spoke  slowly  in  her  place. 

"  I  had  great  beauty  ;  ask  thou  not  my  name  : 

No  one  can  be  more  wise  than  destiny. 
Many  drew  swords  and  died.    Where'er  I  came 

I  brought  calamity."  ^ 

195.  Its  Origin.  At  the  nuptials  of  Peleus  and  Thetis  all  the 
gods  had  been  invited  with  the  exception  of  Eris,  or  Discord. 
Enraged  at  her  exclusion,  the  goddess  threw  a  golden  apple  among 

1  From  Tennyson's  Dream  of  Fair  Women. 


2  7cS  THE  CLASSIC   MYTHS 

the  guests,  with  the  inscription,  "'  For  the  fairest."  Thereupon 
Juno,  Venus,  and  Minerva  each  claimed  the  apple.  Not  willing 
to  decide  so  delicate  a  matter,  Jupiter  sent  the  goddesses  to  Mount 
Ida  where  Paris,  son  of  Priam,  king  of  Troy,  was  tending  his 
flocks.  Till  that  moment  the  shepherd-prince  had  been  happy. 
He  was  young  and  beautiful  and  beloved, —  "White-breasted  like  a 
star,"  says  CEnone,  the  nymph  whom  he  had  wedded : 

White-breasted  like  a  star 
Fronting  the  dawn  he  moved ;  a  leopard  skin 
Dropp'd  from  his  shoulder,  but  his  sunny  hair 
Cluster'd  about  his  temples  like  a  god's : 
And  his  cheek  brighten'd  as  the  foam-bow  brightens 
When  the  wind  blows  the  foam,  and  all  my  heart 
Went  forth  to  embrace  him  coming  ere  he  came.* 

But  to  him  was  now  committed  the  judgment  between  the  god- 
desses.   They  appeared  : 

And  at  their  feet  the  crocus  brake  like  fire, 

Violet,  amaracus,  and  asphodel, 

Lotos  and  lilies :  and  a  wind  arose, 

And  overhead  the  wandering  ivy  and  vine, 

This  way  and  that,  in  many  a  wild  festoon 

Ran  riot,  garlanding  the  gnarled  boughs 

With  bunch  and  berry  and  flower  thro'  and  thro'.* 

Juno  promised  him  power  and  riches,  Minerva  glory  and  renown 
in  war,  Venus  the  fairest  of  women  for  his  wife,  —  each  attempt- 
ing to  bias  the  judge  in  her  own  favor.  Paris,  forgetting  the  fair 
n\'mph  to  whom  he  owed  fealty,  decided  in  favor  of  Venus,  thus 
making  the  two  other  goddesses  his  enemies.  Under  the  protection 
of  the  goddess  of  love,  he  soon  afterwards  sailed  to  Greece.  Here 
he  was  hospitably  received  by  Menelaiis,  whose  wife,  Helen,  as 
fairest  of  her  sex,  was  unfortunately  the  prize  destined  for  Paris. 
This  fair  queen  had  in  time  past  been  sought  by  numerous  suitors  ; 
but  before  her  decision  was  made  known,  they  all,  at  the  sugges- 
tion of  Ulysses,  son  of  Laertes,  king  of  Ithaca,  had  taken  an  oath 

^  From  Tennyson's  CEnone. 


THE    IKUJAN    WAR 


_'7y 


that  they  would  sustain  her  choice  and  avenge  her  cause  if  neces- 
sary. She  was  Uving  happily  with  Menelaiis  when  Paris,  becoming 
their  guest,  made  love  to  her,  and  then,  aided  by  Venus,  persuaded 
her  to  elope  with  him,  and  carried  her  to  Troy.  From  this  cause 
arose  the  famous  Trojan  War,  —  the  theme  of  the  greatest  poems 
of  antiquity,  those  of 
Homer  and  Virgil. 

Menelaiis  called 
upon  the  chieftains 
(^f  Greece  to  aid  him 
in  recovering  his  wife. 
They  came  forward 
with  a  few  exceptions. 
Ulysses,  for  instance, 
who  had  married  a 
cousin  of  Helen's, 
Penelope,  daughter  of 
Icarius,  was  happy  in 
his  wife  and  child, 
and  loth  to  embark  in 
the  troublesome  affair. 
Palamedes  was  sent  to 
urge  him.  But  when 
Palamedes  arrived  at 
Ithaca,  Ulysses  pre- 
tended madness.  He 
yoked  an  ass  and  an 


Fig.  151.    Achilles  taken  from  Scyros 


ox  together  to  the  plow  and  began  to  sow  salt.  The  ambassador,  to 
tr)'  him,  placed  the  infant  Telemachus  before  the  plow,  whereupon 
ihe  father,  turning  the  plow  aside,  showed  that  his  insanity  was  a 
mere  pretense.  Being  himself  gained  for  the  undeitaking,  Ulysses 
lent  his  aid  to  bring  in  other  reluctant  chiefs,  especially  Achilles, 
son  of  Peleus  and  Thetis.  Thetis  being  herself  one  of  the  immor- 
tals, and  knowing  that  her  son  was  fated  to  perish  before  Troy  if 
he  went  on  the  expedition,  endeavored  to  prevent  his  going.  She, 
accordingly,  sent  him  to  the  court  of  King  Lycomedes  of  the  island 
of  Scyros,  and  induced  him  to  conceal  himself  in  the  garb  of  a 


28o  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

maiden  among  the  daughters  of  the  king.  Hearing  that  the  young 
Achilles  was  there,  Ulysses  went  disguised  as  a  merchant  to  the 
palace  and  offered  for  sale  female  ornaments,  among  which  had 
been  placed  some  arms.  Forgetting  the  part  he  had  assumed, 
Achilles  handled  the  weapons  and  thereby  betrayed  himself  to 
Ulysses,  who  found  no  great  difficulty  in  persuading  him  to  disre- 
gard his  mother's  counsels  and  join  his  countrymen  in  the  war. 

It  seems  that  from  early  youth  Paris  had  been  reared  in  obscur- 
ity, because  there  were  forebodings  that  he  would  be  the  ruin  of 
the  state.  These  forebodings  appeared,  at  last,  likely  to  be  realized  ; 
for  the  Grecian  armament  now  in  preparation  was  the  greatest  that 
had  ever  been  fitted  out.  Agamemnon,  king  of  Mycenae  and  brother 
of  Menelaiis,  was  chosen  commander  in  chief.  Preeminent  among 
the  warriors  was  the  swift-footed  Achilles.  After  him  ranked  his 
cousin  Ajax,  the  son  of  Telamon,  gigantic  in  size  and  of  great 
courage,  but  dull  of  intellect ;  Diomede,  the  son  of  Tydeus,  second 
only  to  Achilles  in  all  the  qualities  of  a  hero ;  Ulysses,  famous  for 
sagacity ;  and  Nestor,  the  oldest  of  the  Grecian  chiefs,  to  whom 
they  all  looked  up  for  counsel. 

But  Troy  was  no  feeble  enemy.  Priam  the  king,  son  of  Laome- 
don  and  brother  of  Tithonus  and  Hesione,  was  now  old  ;  but  he 
had  been  a  wise  prince  and  had  strengthened  his  state  by  good 
government  at  home  and  powerful  alliances  with  his  neighbors. 
By  his  wife  Hecuba  he  had  a  numerous  family ;  but  the  principal 
stay  and  support  of  his  throne  was  his  son  Hector,  one  of  the 
noblest  figures  of  antiquity.  The  latter  had,  from  the  first,  a  pre- 
sentiment of  the  ruin  of  Troy,  but  still  he  persevered  in  heroic  re- 
sistance, though  he  by  no  means  justified  the  wrong  which  brought 
this  danger  upon  his  country.  He  was  united  in  marriage  with 
the  noble  Andromache,  and  as  husband  and  father  his  character 
was  not  less  admirable  than  as  warrior.  The  principal  leaders  on 
the  side  of  the  Trojans,  beside  Hector,  were  his  relative,  -^neas, 
the  son  of  Venus  and  Anchises,  Deiphobus,  Glaucus,  and  Sarpedon. 

196.  Iphigenia  in  Aulis.  After  two  years  of  preparation,  the 
Greek  fleet  and  army  assembled  in  the  port  of  Aulis  in  Boeotia. 
Here  Agamemnon,  while  hunting,  killed  a  stag  that  was  sacred  to 
Diana.    The  goddess  in  retribution  visited  the  army  with  pestilence 


THE  TROJAN  WAR 


281 


and  produced  a  calm  which  prevented  the  ships  from  leaving  the 
port.  Thereupon,  Calchas  the  soothsayer  announced  that  the  wrath 
of  the  virgin  goddess 
could  only  be  appeased  by 
the  sacrifice  of  a  virgin, 
and  that  none  other  but 
the  daughter  of  the  offen- 
der would  be  acceptable. 
Agamemnon,  however  re- 
luctant, submitted  to  the 
inevitable  and  sent  for  his 
daughter  Iphigenia,  under 
the  pretense  that  her  mar- 
riage to  Achilles  was  to  be 
at  once  performed.  But, 
in  the  moment  of  sac- 
rifice, Diana,  relenting, 
snatched  the  maiden  away 
and   left    a    hind    in  her 


Fig.  152.   The  Sacrifice  of  Iphigenia 


place.    Iphigenia,  enveloped  in  a  cloud,  was  conveyed  to  Tauris, 
where  Diana  made  her  priestess  of  her  temple.^ 

Iphigenia  is  represented  as  thus  describing  her  feelings  at  the 
moment  of  sacrifice  : 

"  I  was  cut  off  from  hope  in  that  sad  place, 
Which  men  call'd  Aulis  in  those  iron  years : 

My  father  held  his  hand  upon  his  face ; 
I.  blinded  with  my  tears, 

"  Still  strove  to  speak  :  my  voice  was  thick  with  sighs 

As  in  a  dream.    Dimly  I  could  descry 
The  stern  black-bearded  kings,  with  wolfish  eyes 

Waiting  to  see  me  die. 

"  The  high  masts  flicker'd  as  they  lay  afloat; 

The  crowds,  the  temples,  waver'd,  and  the  shore ; 
The  bright  death  quiver'd  at  the  victim's  throat ; 

Touch'd  ;  and  I  knew  no  more."  ^ 

1  Euripides,  Iphigenia  at  Aulis,  Iphigenia  among  the  Tauri. 

2  From  Tennyson's  Dream  of  Fair  Women. 


282  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

197.  Protesilaiis  and  Laodamia.  The  wind  now  proving  fair, 
the  fleet  made  sail  and  brought  the  forces  to  the  coast  of  Troy. 
The  Trojans  opposed  their  landing,  and  at  the  first  onset  one  of 
the  noblest  of  the  Greeks,  Protesilaiis,  fell  by  the  hand  of  Hector. 
This  Protesilaiis  had  left  at  home  his  wife  Laodamia  (a  niece  of 
Alcestis),  —  who  was  most  tenderly  attached  to  him.  The  story 
runs  that  when  the  news  of  his  death  reached  her,  she  implored 
the  gods  for  leave  to  converse  with  him  if  but  for  three  hours. 
The  request  was  granted.  Mercur)^  led  Protesilaiis  back  to  the 
upper  world  ;  and  when  the  hero  died  a  second  time  Laodamia 
died  with  him.  It  is  said  that  the  nymphs  planted  elm  trees  round 
his  grave,  which  flourished  till  they  were  high  enough  to  command 
a  view  of  Troy,  then  withered  away,  giving  place  to  fresh  branches 
that  sprang  from  the  roots. 

Wordsworth  has  taken  the  story  of  Protesilaiis  and  Laodamia 
for  a  poem  invested  with  the  atmosphere  of  the  classics.  The 
oracle,  according  to  the  tradition,  had  declared  that  victory  should 
be  the  lot  of  that  party  from  which  should  fall  the  first  victim  in 
the  war.  The  poet  represents  Protesilaiis,  on  his  brief  return  to 
earth,  relating  to  Laodamia  the  stor\^  of  his  fate  : 

"  The  wished-for  wind  was  given  :  —  I  then  revolved 

The  oracle,  upon  the  silent  sea ; 
And,  if  no  worthier  led  the  way,  resolved 

That,  of  a  thousand  vessels,  mine  should  be 
The  foremost  prow  in  pressing  to  the  strand,  — 
Mine  the  first  blood  that  tinged  the  Trojan  sand. 

"  Yet  bitter,  ofttimes  bitter,  was  the  pang 

When  of  thy  loss  I  thought,  beloved  Wife ! 
On  thee  too  fondly  did  my  memory  hang. 

And  on  the  joys  we  shared  in  mortal  life,  — 
The  paths  which  we  had  trod  —  these  fountains,  flowers. 
My  new-planned  cities,  and  unfinished  towers. 

"  But  should  suspense  permit  the  foe  to  cry, 
^  '  Behold  they  tremble  !  —  haughty  their  array, 

Yet  of  their  number  no  one  dares  to  die '  ? 

In  soul  I  swept  the  indignity  away : 
Old  frailties  then  recurred  :  —  but  lofty  thought, 
In  act  embodied,  my  deliverance  wrought,"  .  .  . 


THE  TROJAN   WAR  283 

.  .  .  Upon  the  side 
Of  Hellespont  (such  faith  was  entertained) 
A  knot  of  spiry  trees  for  ages  grew 
From  out  the  tomb  of  him  for  whom  she  died ; 
And  ever,  when  such  stature  they  had  gained 
That  Ilium's  walls  were  subject  to  their  view, 
The  trees'  tall  summits  withered  at  the  sight ; 
A  constant  interchange  of  growth  and  blight ! 

198.  Homer's  Iliad.  The  war  continued  without  decisive  result 
for  nin_e  years.  Then  an  event  occurred  which  seemed  likely  to 
prove  fatal  to  the  cause  of  the  Greeks,  —  a  quarrel  between  Achilles 
and  Agamemnon.  It  is  at  this  point  that  the  great  poem  of  Homer, 
th'e' Iliad,  begins. 

Of  this  and  the  other  epics  from  which  the  story  is  drawn  an 
account  will  be  found  in  Chapter  XXXII  below;  and  a  list  of 
the  best  English  translations,  in  the  corresponding  sections  of  the 
Commentary.  What  delight  one  may  derive  from  reading  the 
Greek  epics  even  in  translation  is  nowhere  better  expressed  than 
in  the  following  sonnet  of  John  Keats,  "On  First  Looking  into 
Chapman's  Homer": 

Much  have  I  travel'd  in  the  realms  of  gold, 

And  many  goodly  states  and  kingdoms  seen ; 

Round  many  western  islands  have  I  been 
Which  bards  in  fealty  to  Apollo  hold. 
Oft  of  one  wide  expanse  had  I  been  told 

That  deep-brow'd  Homer  ruled  as  his  demesne : 

Yet  did  I  never  breathe  its  pure  serene 
Till  I  heard  Chapman  speak  out  loud  and  bold  : 
—  Then  felt  I  like  some  watcher  of  the  skies 

When  a  new  planet  swims  into  his  ken ; 
Or  like  stout  Cortez  when  with  eagle  eyes 

He  stared  at  the  Pacific  —  and  all  his  men 
Look'd  at  each  other  with  a  wild  surmise  — 

Silent,  upon  a  peak  in  Darien. 

199.  The  Wrath  of  Achilles.  The  Greeks,  though  unsuccessful 
against  Troy,  had  taken  the  neighboring  and  allied  cities ;  and  in 
the  division  of  the  spoil  a  female  captive,  by  name  Chrysei's, 
daughter  of  Chryses,  priest  of  Apollo,  had  fallen  to  the  share  of 


284  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Agamemnon.  Chryses  came  bearing  the  sacred  emblems  of  his 
office  and  begged  the  release  of  his  daughter.  Agamemnon  re- 
fused. Thereupon  Chryses  implored  Apollo  to  afflict  the  Greeks 
till  they  should  be  forced  to  yield  their  prey.  Apollo  granted  the 
prayer  of  his  priest  and  sent  such  pestilence  upon  the  Grecian 
camp,  that  a  council  was  called  to  deliberate  how  to  allay  the  wrath 
of  the  gods  and  avert  the  plague.  Achilles  boldly  charged  the  mis- 
fortunes upon  Agamemnon  as  caused  by  his  withholding  ChryseTs. 
Agamemnon,  in  anger,  consented,  thereupon,  to  relinquish  his 
captive,  but  demanded  that  Achilles  should  yield  to  him  in  her 


Fig.  153.   The  Surrender  of  Briseis 
From  the  relief  by  Thorwaldsen 

Stead  BriseTs,  a  maiden  who  had  fallen  to  that  hero's  share  in  the 
division  of  the  spoil.  Achilles  submitted,  but  declared  that  he 
would  take  no  further  part  in  the  war,  —  withdrew  his  forces 
from  the  general  camp  and  avowed  his  intention  of  returning  to 
Greece. 

200.  The  Enlistment  of  the  Gods.  The  gods  and  goddesses  inter- 
ested themselves  as  much  in  this  famous  siege  as  did  the  parties 
themselves.  It  was  well  known  in  heaven  that  fate  had  decreed 
the  fall  of  Troy,  if  her  enemies  only  persevered.  Yet  there  was 
room  for  chance  sufficient  to  excite  by  turns  the  hopes  and  fears 
of  the  powers  above  who  took  part  with  either  side.  Juno  and 
Minerv^a,  in  consequence  of  the  slight  put  upon  their  charms  by 
Paris,  were  hostile  to  the  Trojans ;  Venus  for  the  opposite  cause 


THE  TROJAN  WAR  285 

favored  them ;  she  enlisted,  also,  her  admirer  Mars  on  the  same 
side,  Neptune  favored  the  Greeks.  Apollo  was  neutral,  sometimes 
taking  one  side,  sometimes  the  other.  Jove  himself,  though  he 
loved  Priam,  exercised  a  degree  of  impartiality,  —  not,  however, 
without  exceptions. 

201.  Thetis  intercedes  for  Achilles.  Resenting  the  injury  done 
by  Agamemnon  to  her  son,  Thetis,  the  silver-footed,  repaired  to 
Jove's  palace,  and  besought  him  to  grant  success  to  the  Trojan 
arms  and  so  make  the  Greeks  repent  of  their  injustice  to  Achilles. 
The  father  of  the  gods,  wavering  at  first,  finally  sighed  and  con- 
sented, saying,  "  Go  thou  now,  but  look  to  it  that  Juno  see  thee 
not,  for  oft  she  taunts  me  that  I  aid  the  Trojan  cause."  Vain 
precaution  :  the  jealous  queen  had  seen  only  too  well,  and  quickly 
she  confronted  the  Thunderer  with  her  suspicions,  — 

"  Fateful  favor  to  Achilles,  hast  thou  granted  now  I  trow !  " 

said  she. 

Zeus  that  rolls  the  clouds  of  heaven,  her  addressing  answered  then : 
"  Moonstruck !  thou  art  ever  trowifigj  never  I  escape  thy  ken. 
After  all,  it  boots  thee  nothing ;  leaves  thee  of  my  he"art  the  less,  — 
So  thou  hast  the  worser  bargain.    What  if  I  the  fact  confess  ? 
It  was  done  because  I  willed  it.    Hold  thy  place  —  my  word  obey, 
Lest  if  I  come  near,  and  on  thee  these  unconquered  hands  I  lay, 
All  the  gods  that  hold  Olympus  naught  avail  thee  here  to-day."  ^ 

202.  Agamemnon  calls  a  Council.  In  the  events  which  immedi- 
ately follow  we  are  introduced  to  the  more  important  human  per- 
sonages on  both  sides.  To  begin  with,  Agamemnon,  king  of  men, 
deceived  by  a  dream  sent  by  Jupiter,  calls  a  council  of  the  Greeks 
in  which,  desiring  to  arouse  them  to  fresh  onslaught  upon  the 
Trojans,  he  tests  their  patience  first  by  depicting  the  joys  of  the 
return  home  to  Greece,  and  nearly  overreaches  himself  in  his  cun- 
ning ;  for  had  it  not  been  for  the  wise  Nestor,  king  of  sandy  Pylos, 
and  Ulysses  of  many  devices,  peer  of  Jove  in  wisdom,  the  common 
soldiers,  fired  with  hope  of  viewing  their  dear  native  land  and 
wives  and  little  children  once  more,  would  have  launched  the  ships 
and  sailed  forthwith.    Among  the  murmuring  host  of  those  who 

1  Gladstone's  Translations  from  the  Iliad. 


286  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

clamor  for  retreat  the  leader  is  Thersites,  uncontrolled  of  speech, 
full  of  disorderly  words,  striving  idly  against  the  chieftains,  aiming 
ever  to  turn  their  authority  into  ridicule.  He  is  the  one  ludicrous 
character  of  the  Iliad,  this  boaster  and  scandalmonger,  sneering 
and  turbulent  of  tongue  : 

His  figure  such  as  might  his  soul  proclaim ; 
One  eye  was  blinking,  and  one  leg  was  lame ; 
His  mountain  shoulders  half  his  breast  o'erspread, 
Thin  hairs  bestrewed  his  long  misshapen  head. 
Spleen  to  mankind  his  envious  heart  possest, 
And  much  he  hated  all,  but  most  the  best. 
Ulysses  or  Achilles  still  his  theme ; 
But  royal  scandal  his  delight  supreme.^ 

Him  Ulysses  hearing  rebukes,  raising  his  scepter  to  strike : 

"  Peace,  factious  monster,  born  to  vex  the  state. 
With  wrangling  talents  formed  for  foul  debate.  .  .  . 
Have  we  not  known  thee,  slave  of  all  our  host. 
The  man  who  acts  the  least,  upbraids  the  most  ?..."' 
He  said,  and  cowering  as  the  dastard  bends. 
The  weighty  scepter  on  his  back  descends : 
On  the  round  bunch  the  bloody  tumors  rise ; 
The  tears  spring  starting  from  his  haggard  eyes : 
Trembling  he  sat,  and,  shrunk  in  abject  fears. 
From  his  wild  visage  wiped  the  scalding  tears.^ 

The  revolt  is  thus  stayed.  A  banquet  of  the  Greek  chieftains 
is  then  held,  merely  of  the  greatest  —  Nestor,  Idomeneus  of  Crete, 
Ajax  the  son  of  Telamon  and  cousin  of  Achilles,  and  Ajax  the  less, 
son  of  Oileus,  Ulysses,  also,  and  Agamemnon  himself.  Menelaiis 
comes,  unbid  but  not  unwelcome.  Sacrifices  are  offered,  but  in 
vain  ;  Jove  heeds  them  not.  Finally,  a  muster  of  the  Greek  troops, 
by  nations  and  by  kings,  is  determined  upon  ;  and  so  the  army  is 
set  in  array. 

203.  Paris  plays  the  Champion.  Likewise  the  army  of  the 
Trojans ;  and  battle  is  about  to  be  joined  when  forth  from  the 
Trojan  ranks  steps  Paris  himself  to  challenge  some  champion  of 
the  opposing  host  to  single  combat,  —  the  beauteous  Paris, 

'  Iliad,  2  (Pope's  translation). 


THE  TROJAN  WAR  287 

In  form  a  god !    The  panther's  speckled  hide- 
Flowed  o'er  his  armor  with  an  easy  pride.  — 
His  bended  bow  across  his  shoulders  flung, 
His  sword  beside  him  negligently  hung. 
Two  pointed  spears  he  shook  with  gallant  grace, 
And  dared  the  bravest  of  the  Grecian  race.^ 

Him,  Menelaiis  whom  he  had  betrayed,  Menelaiis  loved  of  Mars, 
raging  hke  a  Hon,  swift  espies  and,  leaping  from  his  chariot, 
hastens  to  encounter.  But  Paris,  smitten  with  a  sense  of  his  own 
treachery,  fearful,  trembling,  pale  at  sight  of  the  avenger,  betakes 
himself  to  his  heels  and  hides  in  the  thick  of  the  forces  behind. 
Upbraided,  however,  by  the  generous  Hector,  noblest  of  Priam's 
.sons,  the  handsome  Trojan  recovers  his  self-possession  and  con- 
sents to  meet  Menelaiis  in  formal  combat  between  the  opposing 
hosts  :  Helen  and  the  wealth  she  brought  to  be  the  prize ;  and, 
thus,  the  long  war  to  reach  its  termination.  The  Greeks  accept 
the  proposal,  and  a  tmce  is  agreed  upon  that  sacrifices  may  be 
made  on  either  side  for  victor)',  and  the  duel  proceed. 

204.  Helen  surveys  the  Grecian  Host.  Meantime,  Iris,  the  god- 
dess of  the  rainbow,  summons  Helen  to  view  the  impending  duel. 
At  her  loom  in  the  Trojan  palace  the  ill-starred  daughter  of  Leda 
is  sitting,  weaving  in  a  golden  web  her  own  sad  story.  At  memor}- 
of  her  former  husband's  love,  her  home,  her  parents,  the  princess 
drops  a  tear ;  then,  softly  sighing,  turns  her  footsteps  to  the 
Scaean  gate.  No  word  is  said  of  her  matchless  beauty,  but  what  it 
was  Homer  shows  us  by  its  effect.  For  as  she  approaches  the  tower 
where  aged  Priam  and  his  gray-haired  chieftains  sit,  these  cry, — 

"  No  wonder  such  celestial  charms 
For  nine  long  years  have  set  the  world  in  arms ; 
What  winning  graces !  what  majestic  mien  ! 
She  moves  a  goddess,  and  she  looks  a  queen. 
Yet  hence,  oh  Heaven  !  convey  that  fatal  face, 
And  from  destruction  save  the  Trojan  race."  ^ 

— Words  reechoed  by  our  English  Marlowe,  two  thousand  years 

later  * 

Was  this  the  face  that  launched  a  thousand  ships, 

And  burnt  the  topless  towers  of  Ilium? 

1  Iliad,  3  (Pope's  translation). 


288  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Sweet  Helen,  make  me  immortal  with  a  kiss.  — 
Her  lips  suck  forth  my  soul :  see,  where  it  flies ! 
Come,  Helen,  come,  give  me  my  soul  again ! 
Here  will  I  dwell,  for  heaven  is  in  these  lips. 
And  all  is  dross  that  is  not  Helena.  .  .  . 
Oh,  thou  art  fairer  than  the  evening  air 
Clad  in  the  beauty  of  a  thousand  stars ; 
Brighter  art  thou  than  flaming  Jupiter 
When  he  appeared  to  hapless  Semele ;  .  .  . 
And  none  but  thou  shalt  be  my  paramour !  ^ 

Priam,  receiving  his  daughter-in-law  tenderly,  inquires  of  her 
the  names  of  one  and  another  of  the  Greeks  moving  on  the  plain 

below.  — 

"  Who,  that 
Around  whose  brow  such  martial  graces  shine. 
So  tall,  so  awful,  and  almost  divine  ?  "  - 

"  The  son  of  Atreus,"  answers  she,  shamefacedly.  "  Agamem- 
non, king  of  kings,  my  brother  once,  before  my  days  of  shame." 

"  What 's  he  whose  arms  lie  scattered  on  the  plain  ? 
Broad  is  his  breast,  his  shoulders  larger  spread, 
Though  great  Atrides  overtops  his  head. 
Nor  yet  appear  his  care  and  conduct  small ; 
From  rank  to  rank  he  moves  and  orders  all."  ^ 

"  That  is  Ulysses,"  replies  Helen,  "  of  the  barren  isle  of 
Ithaca ;  but  his  fame  for  wisdom  fills  the  earth."   . 

Old  Antenor,  seated  by  Priam's  side,  thereupon  recalls  the  mod- 
esty and  the  restrained  but  moving  eloquence  of  the  wondrous  son 
of  Laertes. 

The  king  then  asked,  as  yet  the  camp  he  viewed, 
"  What  chief  is  that,  with  giant  strength  endued ; 
Whose  brawny  shoulders,  and  whose  swelling  chest, 
And  lofty  stature,  far  exceed  the  rest  ?  "  " 

"  That  is  Ajax  the  great,"  responds  the  beauteous  queen,  "  him- 
self a  host,  bulwark  of  the  Achaeans."  And  she  points  out  Idome- 
neus,  also,  the  godlike  king  of  Crete  ;  then  scans  the  array  for  her 

1   Christopher  Marlowe,  Doctor  Faustus.  2  jHad,  3  (Pope's  translation). 


THE  TROJAN  WAR  289 

own  dear  brothers  Castor  and    Pollux  ;  —  in  vain,  for  them  the 
life-giving  earth  held  fast  there  in  Lacedaemon,  their  native  land. 

205.  Menelaiis  defeats  Paris.  Now  from  both  sides  sacrifices 
have  been  made  to  Jove,  avenger  of  oaths,  with  prayer  for  victory 
and  vow  of  fidelity  to  the  contract  made.  But  Jove  vouchsafes 
not  yet  fulfillment.  The  lists  are  measured  out  by  Hector  and 
Ulysses.  The  duel  is  on.  Paris  throws  his  spear :  it  strikes,  but 
fails  to  penetrate  the  shield  of  Menelaiis.  Menelaiis  then  breaks 
his  blade  upon  the  helmet  of  the  Trojan,  seizes  him  by  the  horse- 
hair crest,  and  drags  him  toward  the  Grecian  lines.  But  Aphrodite 
touches  the  chin  strap  of  Paris'  headpiece  so  that  it  breaks  and 
leaves  the  futile  helmet  in  the  victor's  hand.  Then,  wrapping  her 
favorite  in  a  mist,  the  goddess  bears  him  from  the  pursuit  of 
the  furious  Menelaiis,  and,  laying  him  safe  in  Helen's  chamber, 
summons  his  mistress,  who  first  upbraids,  then  soothes  him  with 
her  love. 

The  Greeks  claim  the  victory,  and  with  justice.  The  Trojans, 
then  and  there,  would  have  yielded  Helen  and  her  wealth,  and 
the  fate  of  Troy  might  have  been  averted,  had  it  not  been  for  the 
machinations  of  the  goddesses,  Juno  and  Minerva.  These  could 
not  bear  that  the  hated  city  should  thus  escape.  Prompted  by  the 
insidious  urging  of  Minerva,  one  of  the  Trojans,  Pandarus,  breaks 
the  truce ;  he  shoots  his  arrow  full  at  the  heart  of  the  unsuspect- 
ing Menelaiis.  Minerva,  of  course,  deflects  the  fatal  shaft.  But 
the  treachery  has  accomplished  its  purpose ;  the  war  is  reopened 
with  fresh  bitterness. 

206.  The  Two  Days'  Battle.  The  battle  which  then  begins  lasts 
for  two  whole  days.  In  its  progress  we  witness  a  series  of  single 
combats.  Pandarus  the  archer  wounds  Diomede,  the  son  of  Tydeus. 
He  in  turn,  raging  over  the  plain,  fells  Pandarus  with  his  spear 
and  crushes  ^neas,  Priam's  valiant  kinsman,  to  his  knees  with  a 
great  stone.  Venus  shrouds  her  fallen  son  in  her  shining  veil 
and  will  rescue  him.  But  Diomedes,  clear  of  vision,  spies  her  out 
and  drives  his  pointed  spear  against  her  hand,  grazing  the  palm 
of  it.  Out  leaps  the  ichor;  life-stream  of  the  blessed  gods,  and  the 
goddess  shrieking  drops  her  burden  and  flees  from  the  jeering 
Diomede  ;  —  nay,  mounts  even  to  Olympus  where,  sobbing  in  the 


29U  I'HK  c:LASSiC   iMVJHS 

arms  of  her  mother,  Dione,  she  finds  solace  of  her  pain,  and 
straightway  turns  to  hopes  of  vengeance,  ^neas,  meantime,  is 
wrapped  by  Phoebus  Apollo  in  a  dusky  cloud  and  borne  aloof  to 
that  god's  temple,  where  Diana  and  Latona  heal  him. 

To  Diomede  still  breathing  slaughter,  the  god  of  war  himself, 
Mars,  now  appears  in  form  of  a  Thracian  captain,  opposing  him 
and  stirring  Hector  and  the  swiftly  recovered  yEneas  and  the  god- 
like Sarpedon  against  the  Greeks.  And  the  Greeks  give  back,  but 
the  keen  eye  of  Diomede  pierces  the  disguise  of  the  War-god, 
and  he  shouts  a  warning  to  his  comrades.  Then  Minerva  de- 
scends to  where  Diomede,  the  son  of  Tydeus,  is  resting  beside 
his  chariot,  and  she  spurs  him  afresh  to  the  fray.  "  Thou  joy  of 
my  heart,"  says  she,  "  fear  thou  neither  Mars  nor  any  other  of  the 
immortals,  for  I  shall  help  thee  mightily."  So  she  takes  the  place 
of  his  charioteer,  and  together  they  drive  upon  the  War-god.  And 
that  one  cannot  come  at  the  son  of  Tydeus  to  strike  him  down, 
because  of  the  ward  that  Minerva  vouchsafes.  But,  for  his  part, 
Diomede  strikes  his  spear  against  the  nethermost  belly  of  Mars 
and  wounds  him,  rending  his  fair  skin  ;  and  he  plucks  forth 
the  spear  again.  Then  brazen  Mars  bellows  loud  as  nine  or  ten 
thousand  soldiers  all  at  once  ;  and,  like  Venus  before  him,  betakes 
himself  to  Olympus.  There,  complaining  to  Jove,  he  receives 
stern  reprimand  for  his  intolerant  and  hateful  spirit,  stirring  men 
ever  to  strife,  —  "like  thine  own  mother  Juno,  after  whom,  not 
after  me,  thou  takest."  Thus,  the  father  of  the  gods  ;  and  he 
makes  an  end,  and  bids  Paean,  the  family  physician,  heal  him. 

Diomedes,  still  bearing  down  upon  the  Trojans,  is  about  to  fight 
with  a  young  warrior  when,  struck  by  his  appearance,  he  inquires 
his  name.  It  is  Glaucus,  and  the  youth  is  grandson  of  the  noble 
Bellerophon.  Then  Diomede  of  the  loud  war  cry  is  glad  and  strikes 
his  spear  into  the  earth  and  declines  to  fight.  '"  For  lo,"  says  he, 
"our  grandfathers  were  guest-friends,  and  guest-friends  are  we. 
Why  slay  each  other }  There  are  multitudes  of  Trojans  for  me  to 
slay,  and  for  thee  Achaeans  in  multitude,  if  thou  canst.  Let  us 
twain  rather  exchange  arms  as  a  testimony  of  our  good  faith." 
And  this  they  do ;  and  Diomede  gets  the  best  of  the  bargain,  his 
armor  being  worth  but  nine  oxen,  and  young  Glaucus'  five  score. 


THE  TROJAN  WAR 


291 


207.  Hector  and  Andromache.  The  Trojans  being  still  pushed 
nearer  to  their  own  walls,  Hector,  bravest  of  Priam's  sons,  returns 
to  the  city  to  urge  the  women  to  prayer,  and  to  carr)-  the  loitering 
Paris  back  with  him  to  the  defense.  Here  he  meets  his  brave  mother 
Hecuba,  and  then  the  fair  Helen  ;  but  most  to  our  purpose  and  his, 
his  wife,  the  white-armed  Andromache,  the  noblest  of  the  women 
of  the  Iliad,  for  whom  he  has  searched  in  vain. 

But  when  he  had  passed  through  the  great  city  and  was  come  to  the  Scsean 
gates,  whereby  he  was  minded  to  issue  upon  the  plain,  then  came  his  dear-won 
wife,   running  to  meet  him,   even    Andromache,   daughter  of  great-hearted 


Fig.  154.   Hector's  Farewell 
From  the  relief  by  Thorwaldsen 

Eetion.  ...  So  she  met  him  now ;  and  with  her  went  the  handmaid  bearing 
in  her  bosom  the  tender  boy,  the  litde  child,  Hector's  loved  son,  like  unto  a 
beautiful  star.  Him  Hector  called  Scamandrius,  but  all  the  folk  Astyanax, 
"  defender  of  the  city."  So  now  he  smiled  and  gazed  at  his  boy  silently,  and 
Andromache  stood  by  his  side  weeping,  and  clasped  her  hand  in  his,  and 
spake  and  called  upon  his  name.  "  Dear  my  lord,  this  thy  hardihood  will  undo 
thee,  neither  hast  thou  any  pity  for  thine  infant  boy,  nor  for  hapless  me  that 
soon  shall  be  thy  widow  ;  for  soon  will  the  Achaeans  all  set  upon  thee  and  slay 
thee.  But  it  were  better  for  me  to  go  down  to  the  grave  if  I  lose  thee ;  for 
nevermore  will  any  comfort  be  mine,  when  once  thou,  even  thou,  hast  met  thy 
fate,  —  but  only  sorrow.  Moreover  I  have  no  father,  now,  nor  lady  mother. 
.  .  ,  And  the  seven  brothers  that  were  mine  within  our  halls,  all  these  on  the 
selfsame  day  went  within  the  house  of  Hades ;  for  fleet-footed,  goodly  Achilles 
slew  them  all  amid  their  kine  of  trailing  gait  and  white-faced  sheep.  .  .  . 


292  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Nay,  Hector,  thou  art  to  me  father  and  lady  mother,  yea  and  brother,  even 
as  thou  art  my  goodly  husband.  Come  now,  have  pity  and  abide  here  upon 
the  tower,  lest  thou  make  thy  child  an  orphan  and  thy  wife  a  widow."  .  .  . 

Then  great  Hector  of  the  glancing  helm  answered  her:  "  Surely  I  take  thought 
for  all  these  things,  my  wife ;  but  I  have  very  sore  shame  of  the  Trojans  and 
Trojan  dames  with  trailing  robes,  if  like  a  coward  I  shrink  away  from  battle. 
Moreover  mine  own  soul  forbiddeth  me,  seeing  I  have  learnt  ever  to  be  valiant 
and  fight  in  the  forefront  of  the  Trojans,  winning  my  father's  great  glory  and 
mine  own.  Yea  of  a  surety,  I  know  this  in  heart  and  soul ;  the  day  shall 
come  for  holy  Ilios  to  be  laid  low,  and  Priam  and  the  folk  of  Priam  of  the 
good  ashen  spear.  Yet  doth  the  anguish  of  the  Trojans  hereafter  not  so  much 
trouble  me,  neither  Hecuba's  own,  neither  king  Priam's,  neither  my  brethren's, 
the  many  and  brave  that  shall  fall  in  the  dust  before  their  foemen,  as  doth 
thine  anguish  in  the  day  when  some  mail-clad  Achaean  shall  lead  thee  weeping, 
and  rob  thee  of  the  light  of  freedom.  .  .  .  But  me  in  death  may  the  heaped-up 
earth  be  covering,  ere  I  hear  thy  crying  and  thy  carrying  into  captivity."  ^ 

So  spoke  the  great-hearted  hero,  and  stretched  his  arms  out  to 
take  his  httle  boy.    But 

The  babe  clung  crying  to  his  nurse's  breast. 
Scared  at  the  dazzling  helm,  and  nodding  crest. 
With  secret  pleasure  each  fond  parent  smiled, 
And  Hector  hasted  to  relieve  his  child,  — 
The  glittering  terrors  from  his  brows  unbound 
And  placed  the  beaming  helmet  on  the  ground. 
Then  kissed  the  child,  and,  lifting  high  in  air. 
Thus  to  the  gods,  preferred  a  father's  prayer  : 

"  O  thou  !  whose  glory  fills  the  ethereal  throne, 
And  all  ye  deathless  powers  !  protect  my  son ! 
Grant  him,  like  me,  to  purchase  just  renown, 
To  guard  the  Trojans,  to  defend  the  crown, 
Against  his  country's  foes  the  war  to  wage, 
And  rise  the  Hector  of  the  future  age ! 
So  when,  triumphant  from  successive  toils 
Of  heroes  slain,  he  bears  the  reeking  spoils, 
Whole  hosts  may  hail  him  with  deserved  acclaim 
And  say,  '  This  chief  transcends  his  father's  fame ' : 
While,  pleased,  amidst  the  general  shouts  of  Troy, 
His  mother's  conscious  heart  o'erflows  with  joy."^ 

1  Iliad,  6,  390  et  seq.  (Lang,  Leaf,  and  Myers'  translation). 

2  Iliad,  6,  470-490  (Pope's  translation). 


THE  TROJAN  WAR  293 

So  prayed  he,  the  glorious  Hector,  foreboding  of  the  future,  but 
Httle  thinking  that,  when  he  himself  was  slain  and  the  city  sacked, 
his  starlike  son  should  be  cast  headlong  to  death  from  Troy's 
high  towers,  and  his  dear  wife  led  into  captivity  as  he  had 
dreaded,  indeed,  and  by  none  other  than  Neoptolemus,  the  son  of 
his  mortal  foe,  Achilles.  But  now  Hector  laid  the  boy  in  the  arms 
of  his  wife,  and  she,  smiling  tearfully,  gathered  him  to  her  fragrant 
bosom  ;  and  her  husband  pitied  her,  and  caressed  her  with  his 
hand,  and  bade  her  farewell,  saying: 

"  Andromache  !  my  soul's  far  better  part, 
Why  with  untimely  sorrows  heaves  thy  heart? 
No  hostile  hand  can  antedate  my  doom, 
Till  fate  condemns  me  to  the  silent  tomb. 
Fixed  is  the  term  to  all  the  race  of  earth ; 
And  such  the  hard  condition  of  our  birth. 
No  force  can  then  resist,  no  flight  can  save ; 
All  sink  alike,  the  fearful  and  the  brave. 
No  more  —  but  hasten  to  thy  tasks  at  home, 
There  guide  the  spindle,  and  direct  the  loom ; 
Me  glory  summons  to  the  martial  scene, 
The  field  of  combat  is  the  sphere  for  men. 
Where  heroes  war,  the  foremost  place  I  claim, 
The  first  in  danger,  as  the  first  in  fame."  ^ 

He  took  up  his  horsehair  crested  helmet ;  and  she  departed  to 
her  home,  oft  looking  back  and  letting  fall  big  tears,  thinking  that 
he  would  no  more  come  back  from  battle. 

208.  Neptune  aids  the  Discouraged  Greeks.  But  the  end  was 
not  to  be  so  soon.  Hector,  returning  to  the  field,  challenged  the 
bravest  of  the  Greeks  to  combat.  Nine  accepted  the  challenge ; 
but  the  lot  fell  upon  Ajax,  the  son  of  Telamon.  The  duel  lasted 
till  night,  with  deeds  of  valor  on  both  sides  ;  and  the  heroes  parted, 
each  testifying  to  his  foeman's  worth.  The  next  day  a  truce  was 
declared  for  the  burning  of  the  dead  ;  but,  soon  after,  the  conflict 
was  renewed,  and  before  the  might  of  Hector  and  his  troops  the 
Greeks  were  driven  back  to  their  trenches. 

Then  Agamemnon,  king  of  men,  called  another  council  of  his 
wisest  and  bravest  chiefs  and,  grievously  discouraged,  proposed, 

1  Iliad,  6  (Pope's  translation). 


294 


IHK  CLASSIC   MYIHS 


this  time  in  earnest,  that  they  reembark  and  sail  home  to  Greece.^ 
In  the  debate  that  ensued  Nestor  advised  that  an  embassy  sho'ild 
be  sent  to  Achilles  persuading  him  to  return  to  the  field  ;  and  that 
Agamemnon  should  yield  the  maiden,  the  cause  of  dispute,  with 
ample  gifts  to  atone  for  the  wrong  he  had  done.  Agamemnon 
assented  ;  and  Ulysses,  Ajax,  and  Phoenix  were  sent  to  carry  to 
Achilles  the  penitent  message.  They  performed  that  duty,  but 
Achilles  was  deaf  to  their  entreaties.     He  positively  refused  to 


IBASSY 

(Left  section) 

return  to  the  attack  and  persisted  in  his  determination  to  embark 
for  Greece  without  delay. 

Meanwhile  the  Greeks,  having  constructed  a  rampart  around 
their  ships,  were  now,  instead  of  besieging  Troy,  in  a  manner 
themselves  besieged,  within  their  rampart.  The  next  day  after  the 
unsuccessful  embassy  to  Achilles,  another  battle  was  fought,  in 
which  Agamemnon  raged  mightily  with  his  spear  till,  wounded,  he 
was  forced  to  retire  to  the  hollow  ships ;  and  Ulysses,  too,  bravely 
warring,  had  a  narrow  escape  with  life.^  Then  the  Trojans,  favored 
by  Jove,  succeeded  in  forcing  a  passage  through  the  Grecian  ram- 
part and  were  about  to  set  fire  to  the  ships.  But  Neptune,  seeing 
the  Greeks  hard  pressed,  came  to  their  rescue.^  Appearing  in  the 
form  of  Calchas  the  prophet,  he  raised  the  ardor  of  the  warriors 
to  such  a  pitch  that  they  forced  the  Trojans  to  give  way.    Here 

1  Iliad,  y.  2  Iliad,  ii.  s  Uiad,  ij. 


'11  IK    IRUJAN    WAR  295 

Ajax,  son  of  Telamon,  performed  prodigies  of  valor.  Bearing  his 
massy  shield  and  "  shaking  his  far-shadowing  spear,"  he  encoun- 
tered Hector.^  The  Greek  shouted  defiance,  to  which  Hector 
replied,  and  hurled  his  lance  at  the  huge  warrior.  It  was  well 
aimed  and  struck  Ajax  where  the  belts  that  bore  his  sword  and 
shield  crossed  each  other  on  the  breast,  but  the  double  guard  pre- 
vented its  penetrating,  and  it  fell  harmless.  Then  Ajax,  seizing  a 
huge  stone,  one  of  those  that  served  to  prop  the  ships,  hurled  it 


Fig.  156.    The  Embassy  to  Achii.i.ks 
(Right  section) 

at  Hector.  It  struck  him  near  the  neck  and  stretched  him  on  the 
plain.  His  followers  instantly  seized  him  and  bore  him  off  stunned 
and  wouryded. 

209.  Jupiter  inspirits  the  Trojans.  While  Neptune  was  thus 
aiding  the  Cireeks  and  driving  back  the  Trojans,  Jupiter  saw 
nothing  of  what  was  going  on,  for  his  attention  had  been  drawn 
from  the  field  by  the  wiles  of  Juno.^  That  goddess  had  arrayed 
herself  in  all  her  charms,  and  to  crown  all  had  borrowed  of  Venus 
her  girdle,  the  Cestus,  which  enhanced  the  wearer's  charms  to 
such  a  degree  that  they  were  irresistible.  So  prepared,  Juno  had 
joined  her  husband,  who  sat  on  Olympus  watching  the  battle. 
When  he  beheld  her,  the  fondness  of  his  early  love  revived  and, 
forgetting  the  contending  armies  and  all  other  affairs  of  state,  he 
gave  himself  up  to  her  and  let  the  battle  go  as  it  would. 

1  Iliad,  14,  400-440.  "  Iliad,  14,  150-350. 


296  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

]-5ut  this  oblivion  did  not  continue  long.  When,  upon  turning 
his  eyes  downward,  the  cloud-compeller  beheld  Hector  stretched, 
almost  lifeless,  on  the  plain,  he  angrily  dismissed  Juno,  command- 
ing her  to  send  Iris  and  Apollo  to  him.^  The  former  bore  a  per- 
emptory message  to  Neptune,  ordering  him  to  quit  the  contest. 


Fig.  157.   The  Battle  by  the  Ships 

Apollo  was  dispatched  to  heal  Hector's  bruises  and  to  inspirit  his 
heart.  These  orders  were  obeyed  with  such  speed  that  while  the 
battle  was  still  raging,  Hector  returned  to  the  field  and  Neptune 
betook  himself  to  his  own  dominions. 

210.  Achilles  and  Patroclus.  An  arrow  from  the  bow  of  Paris 
had  wounded  Machaon,  son  of  -^sculapius,  a  brave  warrior,  who, 
having  inherited  his  father's  art,  was  of  great  value  to  the  Greeks 
as  their  surgeon.  Nestor,  taking  Machaon  in  his  chariot,  conveyed 
him  from  the  field.  As  they  passed  the  ships  of  Achilles,  that 
hero,  looking  over  the  battle,  saw  the  chariot  of  Nestor,  and  rec- 
ognized the  old  chief,  but  could  not  discern  who  the  wounded  war- 
rior was.  Calling  Patroclus,  his  companion  and  dearest  friend,  he 
sent  him  to  Nestor's  tent  to  inquire.  Patroclus,  performing  the 
behest,  saw  Machaon  wounded  and,  having  told  the  cause  of  his 
coming,  would  have  hastened  away,  but  Nestor  detained  him  to 
tell  him  the  extent  of  the  Grecian  calamities.  He  reminded  him 
also  how,  at  the  time  of  the  departure  for  Troy,  Achilles  and  him- 
self had  been  charged  by  their  respective  sires  :  the  one  to  aspire 
to  the  highest  pitch  of  glory ;  the  other,  as  the  elder,  to  keep 

1  Iliad,  i:;. 


THE  TROJAN  WAR  297 

watch  over  his  friend  and  to  guide  his  inexperience.  "'  Now," 
said  Nestor,  "'  is  the  time  for  such  guidance.  If  the  gods  so  please, 
thou  mayest  win  Achilles  back  to  the  common  cause  ;  but  if  not, 
let  him  at  least  send  his  soldiers  to  the  field,  and  come  thou,  Patro- 
clus,  clad  in  his  armor.  Perhaps  the  \ery  sight  of  it  may  drive 
back  the  Trojans."  ^ 

211.  Patroclus  in  the  Armor  of  Achilles.  Patroclus,  strongly 
moved  by  this  address,  hastened  to  his  friend,  revolving  in  his 
mind  what  he  had  seen  and  heard.^  He  told  the  prince  the  sad 
condition  of  affairs  at  the  camp  of  their  late  associates  ;  Diomede, 
Ulysses,  Agamemnon,  Machaon,  all  wounded,  the  rampart  broken 
down,  the  enemy  among  the  ships  preparing  to  burn  them  and 
thus  to  cut  off  all  means  of  return  to  Greece.  While  they  spoke, 
the  flames  burst  forth  from  one  of  the  ships.  Achilles,  at  the  sight, 
relented  so  far  as  to  intrust  Patroclus  with  the  Myrmidons  for  the 
onslaught  and  to  lend  him  his  armor  that  he  might  thereby  strike 
the  more  terror  into  the  minds  of  the  Trojans.  Without  delay  the 
soldiers  were  marshaled,  Patroclus  put  on  the  radiant  armor, 
mounted  the  chariot  of  Achilles,  and  led  forth  the  men  ardent  for 
battle.  But  before  his  friend  went,  Achilles  strictly  charged  him 
to  be  content  with  repelling  the  foe.  "Seek  not,"  said  he,  "to 
press  the  Trojans  without  me,  lest  thou  add  still  more  to  the  dis- 
grace already  mine."  Then  exhorting  the  troops  to  do  their  best, 
he  dismissed  them  full  of  ardor  to  the  fight. 

Patroclus  and  his  Myrmidons  at  once  plunged  into  the  contest 
where  it  raged  hottest.  At  the  sight  of  them  the  joyful  Grecians 
shouted,  and  the  ships  reechoed  the  acclaim  ;  but  the  Trojans, 
beholding  the  well-known  armor,  struck  with  terror,  looked  every- 
where for  refuge.  First  those  who  had  got  possession  of  the  ship 
and  set  it  on  fire  allowed  the  Grecians  to  retake  it  and  extinguish 
the  flames.  Then  the  rest  fled  in  dismay.  Ajax,  Menelaiis,  and 
the  two  sons  of  Nestor  performed  prodigies  of  valor.  Hector  was 
forced  to  turn  his  horses'  heads  and  retire  from  the  enclosure, 
leaving  his  men  encumbered  in  the  fosse  to  escape  as  they  could. 
Patroclus  drove  all  before  him,  slaying  many ;  nor  did  one  dare  to 
make  a  stand  against  him. 

1  Iliad,  II.  2  Iliad,  16. 


298  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

212.  The  Deaths  of  Sarpedon  and  Patroclus.  At  last  the  grand- 
son of  Bellerophon,  Sarpedon,  son  of  Jove  and  Laodamia,  ven- 
tured to  oppose  the  Greek  warrior.  The  Olympian  looked  down 
upon  his  son  and  would  have  snatched  him  from  the  fate  impend- 
ing, but  Juno  hinted  that  if  he  did  so,  the  other  inhabitants  of 
heaven  might  be  induced  to  interpose  in  like  manner  whenever  any 

of  their  offspring  were  endan- 
gered, — an  argument  to  which 
Jove  yielded.  Sarpedon  threw 
his  spear,  but  missed  Patroclus ; 
the  spear  of  the  Greek,  on  the 
other  hand,  pierced  Sarpedon 's 
breast,  and  he  fell,  calling  to  his 
friends  to  save  his  body  from 
the  foe.  Then  a  furious  con- 
test arose  for  the  corpse.  The 
Greeks  succeeded  in  stripping 
Sarpedon  of  his  armor,  bu( 
Jove  would  not  suffer  the  bod\ 
to  be  dishonored.  By  his  com- 
mand Apollo  snatched  it  from 
the  midst  of  the  combatants 
and  committed  it  to  the  care  of 
the  twin  brothers  Death  and 
Sleep.  By  them  it  was  trans- 
ported to  Lycia,  Sarpedon 's 
native  land,  and  there  received 
due  funeral  rites. 
Thus  far  Patroclus  had  succeeded  to  the  utmost  in  repelling  the 
foe  and  relieving  his  countrymen,  but  now  came  a  change  of  for- 
tune. Hector,  borne  in  his  chariot,  confronted  him.  Patroclus 
threw  a  vast  stone  at  the  Trojan,  which  missed  its  aim,  but  smote 
Cebriones,  the  charioteer,  and  felled  him  from  the  car.  Hector 
leaped  from  the  chariot  to  rescue  his  friend,  and  Patroclus  also 
descended  to  complete  his  victor^^  Thus  the  two  heroes  met  face 
to  face.  At  this  decisive  moment  the  poet,  as  if  reluctant  to  give 
Hector  the  glory,  records  that  Phoebus  Apollo,  taking  part  against 


Fig.  158.    Menelaus  with  the  Budv 
OF  Patroclus 


THE    I'ROJAN    VVAK  299 

Patroclus,  struck  the  helmet  from  his  head  and  the  lance  from  his 
hand.  At  the  same  moment  an  obscure  Trojan  wounded  him  in 
the  back,  and  Hector  pressing  forward  pierced  him  with  his  spear. 
He  fell  mortally  wounded. 

Then  arose  a  tremendous  conflict  for  the  body  of  Patroclus  ;  but 
his  armor  was  at  once  taken  possession  of  by  Hector,  who,  retiring 
a  short  distance,  divested  himself  of  his  own  mail,  put  on  that  of 
Achilles,  then  returned  to  the  fight.^  Ajax  and  Menelaiis  defended 
the  body,  and  Hector  and  his  bravest  warriors  struggled  to  capture 
it.  The  battle  still  raged  with  equal  fortune,  when  Jove  enveloped 
the  whole  face  of  heaven  in  a  cloud.  The  lightning  flashed,  the 
thunder  roared,  and  Ajax,  looking  round  for  some  one  whom  he 
might  dispatch  to  Achilles  to  tell  him  of  the  death  of  his  friend 
and  of  the  imminent  danger  of  his  remains  falling  into  the  hands 
of  the  enemy,  could  see  no  suitable  messenger.  In  desperation 
he  exclaimed  : 

"  Father  of  heaven  and  earth  !  deliver  thou     i^'f 
Achaia's  host  from  darkness  ;  clear  the  skies ; 
Give  day ;  and,  since  thy  sovereign  will  is  such, 
Destruction  with  it ;  but,  oh,  give  us  day  !  "  '^ 

Jupiter  heard  the  prayer  and  dispersed  the  clouds,  Ajax  sent 
Antilochus  to  Achilles  with  the  intelligence  of  Patroclus'  deatii 
and  of  the  conflict  raging  for  his  remains  ;  and  the  Greeks  at  last 
succeeded  in  bearing  off  the  body  to  the  ships,  closely  pursued  b\- 
Hector  and  ^neas  and  the  rest  of  the  Trojans,, 

213.  The  Remorse  of  Achilles.  Achilles  heard  the  fate  of  his 
friend  with  such  distress  that  Antilochus  feared  for  a  while  lest  he 
might  destroy  himself.-^  His  groans  reached  the  ears  of  Thetis, 
far  down  in  the  deeps  of  ocean  where  she  abode,  and  she  hastened 
to  inquire  the  cause.  She  found  him  overwhelmed  with  self-re- 
proach that  he  had  suffered  his  friend  to  fall  a  victim  to  his  re- 
sentment. His  only  consolation  was  the  hope  of  revenge.  He 
would  fly  instantly  in  search  of  Hector.  But  his  mother  reminded 
him  that  he  was  now  without  armor  and  promised,  if  he  would 
but  wait  till  the  morrow,  to  procure  for  him  a  suit  of  armor  from 

1  Iliad,  17.  2  Cowper's  translation.    The  lines  are  often  quoted.  ^  Iliad,  iJ5. 


300  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Vulcan  more  than  equal  to  that  he  had  lost.  He  consented,  and 
Thetis  immediately  repaired  to  Vulcan's  palace.  She  found  him 
busy  at  his  forge,  making  tripods  for  his  own  use,  so  artfully  con- 
structed that  they  moved  forward  of  their  own  accord  when  wanted, 
and  retired  again  when  dismissed.  On  hearing  the  request  of 
Thetis,  Vulcan  immediately  laid  aside  his  work  and  hastened  to 
comply  with  her  wishes.  He  fabricated  a  splendid  suit  of  armor 
for  Achilles  ;  first  a  shield  adorned  with  elaborate  devices,  of  which 
a  noble  description  is  given  by  Homer,  then  a  helmet  crested  with 
gold,  then  a  corselet  and  greaves  of  impenetrable  temper,  all  per- 
fectly adapted  to  the  hero's  form,  and  of  consummate  workman- 
ship. The  suit  was  made  in  one  night,  and  Thetis,  receiving  it, 
descended  to  earth  and  laid  it  at  Achilles'  feet  at  the  dawn  of  day. 

214.  The  Reconciliation  of  Agamemnon  and  Achilles.  The  first 
glow  of  pleasure  that  Achilles  had  felt  since  the  death  of  Patro- 
clus  was  at  the  sight  of  this  splendid  armor.^  And  now  arrayed 
in  it,  he  went  forth  to  the  camp,  calling  the  chiefs  to  council. 
When  the  leaders  were  assembled,  Achilles  addressed  them.  Re- 
nouncing his  displeasure  against  Agamemnon  and  bitterly  lament- 
ing the  miseries  that  had  resulted  from  it,  he  called  on  them  to 
proceed  at  once  to  the  field.  Agamemnon  made  a  suitable  reply, 
laying  the  blame  on  Ate,  the  goddess  of  infatuation ;  and  there- 
upon complete  reconcilement  took  place  between  the  heroes. 

Then  Achilles  went  forth  to  battle,  heartened  by  the  inspiration 
of  Minerva  and  filled  with  a  rage  and  thirst  for  vengeance  that 
made  him  irresistible.  As  he  mounted  his  chariot,  one  of  his  im- 
mortal coursers  was,  strange  to  say,  endowed  suddenly  with  speech 
from  on  high  and,  breaking  into  prophecy,  warned  the  hero  of  his 
approaching  doom.  But,  nothing  daunted,  Achilles  pressed  upon 
the  foe.  The  bravest  warriors  fled  before  him  or  fell  by  his  lance.^ 
Hector,  cautioned  by  Apollo,  kept  aloof ;  but  the  god,  assuming 
the  form  of  one  of  Priam's  sons,  Lycaon,  urged  JEneas  to  en- 
counter the  terrible  warrior,  ^neas,  though  he  felt  himself  un- 
equal, did  not  decline  the  combat.  He  hurled  his  spear  with  all 
his  force  against  the  shield,  the  work  of  Vulcan.  The  spear  pierced 
two  plates  of  the  shield,  but  was  stopped  in  the  third.    Achilles 

1  Iliad,  19.  2  Iliad,  20. 


THE  TROJAN  WAR  3OI 

threw  his  spear  with  better  success.  It  pierced  through  the  shield 
of  ^neas,  but  glanced  near  his  shoulder  and  made  no  wound. 
Then  ^neas,  seizing  a  stone,  such  as  two  men  of  modern  times 
could  hardly  lift,  was  about  to  throw  it,  —  and  Achilles,  with  sword 
drawn,  was  about  to  rush  upon  him,  —  when  Neptune,  looking  out; 
upon  the  contest,  had  pity  upon  ^neas,  who  was  sure  to  have  the 
worst  of  it.  The  god,  consequently,  spread  a  cloud  between  the 
combatants  and,  lifting  the  Trojan  from  the  ground,  bore  him  over 
the  heads  of  warriors  and  steeds  to  the  rear  of  the  battle.  Achilles, 
when  the  mist  cleared  away,  looked  round  in  vain  for  his  adver- 
sary, and  acknowledging  the  prodigy,  turned  his  arms  against  other 
champions.  But  none  dared  stand  before  him  ;  and  Priam  from 
his  city  walls  beheld  the  whole  army  in  full  flight  toward  the  city. 
He  gave  command  to  open  wide  the  gates  to  receive  the  fugitives, 
and  to  shut  them  as  soon  as  the  Trojans  should  have  passed,  lest 
the  enemy  should  enter  likewise.  But  Achilles  was  so  close  in 
pursuit  that  that  would  have  been  impossible  if  Apollo  had  not,  in 
the  form  of  Agenor,  Priam's  son,  first  encountered  the  swift- 
footed  hero,  then  turned  in  flight,  and  taken  the  way  apart  from 
the  city.  Achilles  pursued,  and  had  chased  his  supposed  victim 
far  from  the  walls  before  the  god  disclosed  himself.^ 

215.  The  Death  of  Hector.  But  when -the  rest  had  escaped  into 
the  town  Hector  stood  without,  determined  to  await  the  combat. 
His  father  called  to  him  from  the  walls,  begging  him  to  retire  nor 
tempt  the  encounter.  His  mother,  Hecuba,  also  besought  him,  but 
all  in  vain.  "  How  can  I,"  said  he  to  himself,  "by  whose  com- 
mand the  people  went  to  this  day's  contest  where  so  many  have 
fallen,  seek  refuge  for  myself  from  a  single  foe  ?  Or  shall  I  offer 
to  yield  up  Helen  and  all  her  treasures  and  ample  of  our  own  be- 
side ?  Ah  no !  even  that  is  too  late.  He  would  not  hear  me 
through,  but  slay  me  while  I  spoke."  While  he  thus  ruminated, 
Achilles  approached,  terrible  as  Mars,  his  armor  flashing  lightning 
as  he  moved.  At  that  sight  Hector's  heart  failed  him  and  he  fled. 
Achilles  swiftly  pursued.  They  ran,  still  keeping  near  the  walls, 
till  they  had  thrice  encircled  the  city.  As  often  as  Hector  ap- 
proached the  walls  Achilles  intercepted  him  and  forced  him  to 

1  Iliad,  21. 


302 


THF.  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


keep  out  in  a  wider  circle.  But 
Apollo  sustained  Hector's  strength 
and  would  not  let  him  sink  in  weari- 
ness. Then  Pallas,  assuming  the 
form  of  Deiphobus,  Hector's  bravest 
brother,  appeared  suddenly  at  his 
side.  Hector  saw  him  with  delight, 
and  thus  strengthened,  stopped  his 
flight,  and,  turning  to  meet  Achilles, 
threw  his  spear.  It  struck  the  shield 
of  Achilles  and  bounded  back.  He 
turned  to  receive  another  from  the 
hand  of  Deiphobus,  but  Deiphobus 
was  gone.  Then  Hector  understood 
his  doom  and  said,  "Alas  !  it  is  plain 
this  is  my  hour  to  die  !  I  thought 
Deiphobus  at  hand,  but  Pallas  de- 
ceived me,  and  he  is  still  in  Troy. 
But  I  will  not  fall  inglorious."  So 
saying  he  drew  his  falchion  from  his 
side  and  rushed  at  once  to  combat. 
Achilles,  secure  behind  his  shield, 
waited  the  approach  of  Hector. 
When  he  came  within  reach  of  his 
spear,  Achilles,  choosing  with  his  eye 
a  vulnerable  part  where  the  armor 
leaves  the  neck  uncovered,  aimed 
his  spear  at  that  part,  and  Hector 
fell,  death-wounded.  Feebly  he  said, 
"Spare  my  body!  Let  my  parents 
ransom  it,  and  let  me  receive  funeral 
rites  from  the  sons  and  daughters 
of  Trov."  To  which  Achilles  replied, 
"  Dog,  name  not  ransom  nor  pity  to 
me,  on  whom  you  have  brought  such 
(lire  distress.  No!  tmst  me,  nought 
shall  save  thy  carcass  from  the  dogs. 


THE  TROJAN  WAR 


303 


Though  twenty  ransoms  and  th\-  weight   in   ^olrl   were  offered.   1 
should  refuse  it  all."  ^ 

216.  Achilles  drags  the  Body  of  Hector.  So  saying,  the  son  of 
Peleus  stripped  the  bodv  of  its  armor,  and,  fastening  cords  to  the 
feet,  tied  them  behind  his  chariot,  leaving  the  body  to  trail  along 
the  ground.  'I'hen  mounting  the  chariot  he  lashed  the  steeds -and 
so  dragged  the  bod)-  to  and  fro  before  the  city.  No  words  can  tell 
the  grief  of  Priam  and  Hecuba  at  this  sight.  His  people  could 
scarce  restrain  the  aged  king  from  rushing  forth.  He  threw  him- 
self in  the  dust  and  besought  them  each  by  name  to  let  him  pass. 


Fig.  160.    A<Hii,LKs  over  the  Bodv  ok  Hector  at  the 
Tomb  of  Patroclus 


Hecuba's  distress  was  not  less  violent.  The  citizens  stood  round 
them  weeping.  The  sound  of  the  mourning  reached  the  ears  of 
Andromache,  the  wife  of  Hector,  as  she  sat  among  her  maidens 
at  work  ;  and  anticipating  evil  she  went  forth  to  the  wall.  When 
she  saw  the  horror  there  presented,  she  would  ha\'e  thrown  her- 
self headlong  from  the  wall,  but  fainted  and  fell  into  the  arms  of 
her  maidens.  Recovering,  she  bewailed  her  fate,  picturing  to 
herself  her  countr)-  ruined,  herself  a  captive,  and  her  son,  the 
youthful  Astyanax,  dependent  for  his  bread  on  the  charity  of 
strangers. 

After  Achilles  and  the   Greeks   had  thus  taken  their  revenge 
on  the  slayer  of  Patroclus,  they  busied  themselves  in  paying  due 

I   Ili.ifl,  22,  350. 


304 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


funeral  rites  to  their  friend.^  A  pile  was  erected,  and  the  body 
burned  with  due  solemnity.  Then  ensued  games  of  strength  and 
skill,  chariot  races,  wrestling,  boxing,  and  archer)-.  Later,  the 
chiefs  sat  down  to  the  funeral  banquet,  and  finally  retired  to  rest 
But  Achilles  partook  neither  of  the  feast  nor  of  sleep.  The  recol- 
lection of  his  lost  friend  kept  him  awake,  —  the  memory  of  their 
companionship  in  toil  and  dangers,  in  battle  or  on  the  perilous 
deep.  Before  the  earliest  dawn  he  left  his  tent,  and  joining  to  his 
chariot  his  swift  steeds,  he  fastened  Hector's  body  to  be  dragged 
behind.  Twice  he  dragged  him  round  the  tomb  of  Patroclus,  leav- 
ing him  at  length  stretched  in  the  dust.  But  Apollo  would  not 
permit  the  body  to  be  torn  or  disfigured  with  all  this  abuse ;  he 
preserved  it  free  from  taint  or  defilement.^ 


Fig.  i6i.  Priam's  Visit  to  Achilles 


While  Achilles  indulged  his  wrath  in  thus  disgracing  Hector, 
Jupiter  in  pity  summoned  Thetis  to  his  presence.  Bidding  her 
prevail  on  Achilles  to  restore  the  body  of  Hector  to  the  Trojans, 
he  sent  Iris  to  encourage  Priam  to  beg  of  Achilles  the  body  of  his 
son.  Iris  delivered  her  message,  and  Priam  prepared  to  obey. 
He  opened  his  treasuries  and  took  out  rich  garments  and  cloths, 
with  ten  talents  in  gold  and  two  splendid  tripods  and  a  golden  cup 
of  matchless  workmanship.  Then  he  called  to  his  sons  and  bade 
them  draw  forth  his  litter  and  place  in  it  the  various  articles  de- 
signed for  a  ransom  to  AchiHes.  When  all  was  ready,  the  old 
king  with   a   single  companion   as  aged  as   himself,   the  herald 


1  Iliad,  23. 


2  Iliad,  24,  15. 


THE  TROJAN  WAR  305 

Idaeus,  drove  forth  from  the  gates,  parting  tiierc  with  Hecuba 
his  queen,  and  all  his  friends,  who  lamented  him  as  going  to 
certain  death. 

217.  Priam  in  the  Tent  of  Achilles. V  But  Jupiter,  beholding 
with  compassion  the  venerable  king,  sent  Mercur}^  to  be  his  guide 
and  protector.  Assuming  the  form  of  a  young  w'arrior,  Mercury 
presented  himself  to  the  aged  couple  ;  and,  when  at  the  sight  of 
him  they  hesitated  whether  to  fly  or  yield,  approaching  he  grasped 
Priam's  hand  and  offered  to  be  their  guide  to  Achilles'  tent.  Priam 
gladly  accepted  his  service,  and  Mercury,  mounting  the  carriage, 
assumed  the  reins  and  conveyed  them  to  the  camp.  Then  having 
cast  the  guards  into  a  heavy  sleep,  he  introduced  Priam  into  the 
tent  where  Achilles  sat,  attended  by  two  of  his  warriors.  The  aged 
king  threw  himself  at  the  feet  of  Achilles  and  kissed  those  terrible 
hands  which  had  destroyed  so  many  of  his  sons.  '"  Think,  O 
Achilles,"  he  sa'd,  "  of  thine  own  father,  full  of  days  like  me,  and 
t-rembling  on  the  gloomy  verge  of  life.  Even  now,  mayhap,  some 
neighbor  chief  oppresses  him  and  there  is  none  at  hand  to  succor 
h'm  in  his  distress.  Yet,  knowing  that  Achilles  lives,  he  doubt- 
less still  rejoices,  hoping  that  one  day  he  shall  see  thy  face  again. 
But  me  no  comfort  cheers,  whose  bravest  sons,  so  late  the  flower  of 
Ilium,  all  have  fallen.  Yet  one  I  had,  one  more  than  all  the  rest 
the  strength  of  my  age,  whom  fighting  for  his  country  thou  hast 
slain.  His  body  I  come  to  redeem,  bringing  inestimable  ransom 
with  me.  Achilles  !  reverence  the  gods  !  recollect  thy  father  !  for 
his  sake  show  compassion  to  me  !  "  These  words  moved  Achilles, 
and  he  wept,  remembering  by  turns  his  absent  father  and  his  lost 
friend.  Moved  with  pity  of  Priam's  silver  locks  and  beard,  he 
raised  him  from  the  earth  and  spake  :  "  Priam,  I  know  that  thou 
hast  reached  this  place  conducted  by  some  god,  for  without  aid 
divine  no  mortal  even  in  his  prime  of  youth  had  dared  the  attempt. 
I  grant  thy  request,  for  I  am  moved  thereto  by  the  manifest  will 
of  Jove."  So  saying  he  arose,  went  forth  with  his  two  friends,  and 
unloaded  of  its  charge  the  litter,  leaving  two  mantles  and  a  robe 
for  the  covering  of  the  body.  This  they  placed  on  the  litter  and 
spread  the  garments  over  it,  that  not  unveiled  it  should  be  borne 

1  Iliad,  24,  330-S04. 


3o6  J'HK  CLASSIC   MYIHS 

back  to  Troy.  Then  Achilles  dismissed  the  old  king,  having  first 
pledged  himself  to  a  truce  of  twelve  days  for  the  funeral  solemnities. 

As  the  litter  approached  the  city  and  was  descried  from  the 
walls,  the  people  poured  forth  to  gaze  once  more  on  the  face  of 
their  hero.  Foremost  of  all,  the  mother  and  the  wife  of  Hector 
came,  and  at  the  sight  of  the  lifeless  body  renewed  their  lamenta- 
tions. The  people  wept  with  them,  and  to  the  going  down  of  the 
sun  there  was  no  pause  or  abatement  of  their  grief. 

The  next  day,  preparations  were  made  for  the  funeral  solemni- 
ties. For  nine  days  the  people  brought  wood  and  built  the  pile ; 
and  on  the  tenth  they  placed  the  body  on  the  summit  and  applied 
the  torch,  while  all  Troy,  thronging  forth,  encompassed  the  pyre. 
When  it  had  completely  burned,  they  quenched  the  cinders  with 
wine,  and,  collecting  the  bones,  placed  them  in  a  golden  urn,  which 
they  buried  in  the  earth.    Over  the  spot  they  reared  a  pile  of  stones. 

Such  honors  Ilium  to  her  hero  paid, 

And  peaceful  slept  the  mighty  Hector's  shade.' 

V  1  Hiad,  24,  804  (Pope's  translation). 


^L. 


"  -^Vijta  ^ 


AMAZON 


CHAPTER    XXIII 


THE    FALL    OF    TROV 


218.  The  Fall  of  Troy.  The  story  of  the  Ihad  ends  with  the 
death  of  Hector,  and  it  is  from  the  Odyssey  and  later  poems  that 
we  learn  the  fate  of  the  other  heroes.  After  the  death  of  Hector, 
Troy  did  not  immediately  fall,  but  receiving  aid  from  new  allies, 
still  continued  its  resistance.  One  of  these  allies  was  Memnon,  the 
Ethiopian  prince,  whose  story 
has  been  already  told.^  An- 
other was  Penthesilea,  queen 
of  the  Amazons,  who  came 
with  a  band  of  female  warriors. 
All  the  authorities  attest  the 
valor  of  these  women  and  the 
fearful  effect  of  their  war  cr}-. 
Penthesilea,  having  slain  many 
of  the  bravest  Greeks,  was  at 
last  slam  by  Achilles.  But 
when  the  hero  bent  over  his 
fallen  foe  and  contemplated 
her  beauty,  youth,  and  valor, 
he  bitterly  regretted  his  victory.  Thersites,  the  insolent  brawler 
and  demagogue,  attempting  to  ridicule  his  grief,  was  in  conse- 
quence slain  by  the  hero.^ 

219.  The  Death  of  Achilles.  But  Achilles  himself  was  not 
destined  to  a  long  life.  Having  by  chance  seen  Polyxena,  daughter 
of  King  Priam,  —  perhaps  on  occasion  of  the  truce  which  was 
allowed  the  Trojans  for  the  burial  of  Hector,  —  he  was  captivated 
with  her  charms ;  and  to  win  her  in  marriage,  it  is  said  (but  not 
by  Homer)  that  he  agreed  to  influence  the  Greeks  to  make  peace 
with  Troy.    While  the  hero  was  in  the  temple  of  Apollo  negotiating 

1  §  128.  -  Pausanias,  5,  11,  §  2  ;  and  Sophocles,  Philoctetes,  445. 


Fig.  162.   AcuiLLLo  amj  I'i-mhesilea 


3o8  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

the  marriage,  Paris  discharged  at  him  a  poisoned  arrow, ^  which, 
guided  by  Apollo,  fatally  wounded  him  in  the  heel.  This  was  his 
only  vulnerable  spot ;  for  Thetis,  having  dipped  him  when  an  in- 
fant in  the  river  Styx,  had  rendered  every  part  of  him  invulnerable 
except  that  by  which  she  held  him.'^ 

220.  Contest  for  the  Arms  of  Achilles.  The  body  of  Achilles 
so  treacherously  slain  was  rescued  by  Ajax  and  Ulysses.  Thetis 
directed  the  Greeks  to  bestow  her  son's  armor  on  that  hero  who 
of  all  survivors  should  be  judged  most  deserving  of  it.  Ajax  and 
Ulysses  were  the  only  claimants.  A  select  number  of  the  other 
chiefs  were  appointed  to  award  the  prize.  By  the  will  of  Miner\^a 
it  was  awarded  to  Ulysses,  — wisdom  being  thus  rated  above  valor. 
Ajax,  enraged,  set  forth  from  his  tent  to  wreak  vengeance  upon 
the  Atridas  and  Ulysses.  But  the  goddess  robbed  him  of  reason 
and  turned  his  hand  against  the  flocks  and  herds  of  the  Argives, 
which  he  slaughtered  or  led  captive  to  his  tent,  counting  them  the 
rivals  who  had  wronged  him.  Then  the  cruel  goddess  restored  to 
him  his  wits.  And  he,  fixing  his  sword  in  the  ground,  prepared 
to  take  his  own  life  : 

"  Come  and  look  on  me, 

0  Death,  O  Death,  —  and  yet  in  yonder  world 

1  shall  dwell  with  thee,  speak  enough  with  thee ; 
And  thee  I  call,  thou  light  of  golden  day. 
Thou  Sun,  who  drivest  on  thy  glorious  car. 
Thee,  for  this  last  time,  —  never  more  again ! 

O  Light,  O  sacred  land  that  was  my  home ; 
O  Salamis,  where  stands  my  father's  hearth, 
Thou  glorious  Athens,  with  thy  kindred  race  ; 
Ye  streams  and  rivers  here,  and  Troia's  plains, 
To  you  that  fed  my  life  I  bid  farewell ; 
This  last,  last  word  does  Ajax  speak  to  you ; 
All  else,  I  speak  in  Hades  to  the  dead."  ^ 

Then,  falling  upon  his  sword,  he  died.  So,  in  the  words  of  his 
magnanimous  foe,  Ulysses,  passed  to  the  god  that  ruleth  in  gloom 

The  best  and  bravest  of  the  Argive  host. 
Of  all  that  came  to  Troia,  saving  one, 
Achilles'  self.* 

1  Virgil,  yEneid,  6,  57.  2  Statins,  Achilleid,  i,  269.  3  Sophocles,  Ajax. 


THE  FALL  OF  TROY 


309 


On  the  spot  where  his  blood  sank  into  the  earth  a  hyacinth  sprang 
up,  bearing  on  its  leaves  the  first  two  letters  of  his  name,  Ai,  the 
Greek  interjection  of  woe.^ 

It  was  now  discovered  that  Troy  could  not  be  taken  but  by  the 
V  aid  of  the  arrows  of  Hercules.    They  were  in  possession  of  Philoc- 
'  tetes,  the  friend  who  had  been  with  Hercules  at  the  last  and  had 
lighted  his  funeral  pyre.    Philoctetes^  had  joined  the  Grecian  ex- 
pedition against  Troy ;  but  he  accidentally  wounded  his  foot  with 


Fig.  163.   OiNONE  warning  Paris 

one  of  the  poisoned  arrows,  and  the  smell  from  the  wound  proved 
so  offensive  that  his  companions  carried  him  to  the  isle  of  Lemnos 
and  left  him  there.  Diomede  and  Ulysses,  or  Ulysses  and  Neop- 
tdleraus  (son  of  Achilles),  were  now  sent  to  induce  him  to  rejoin 
the  army.  They  succeeded.  Philoctetes  w'as  cured  of  his  wound 
by  Machaon,  and  Paris  was  the  first  victim  of  the  fatal  arrows. 

1  See  Commentary. 

2  Servius  Honoratus,  Commentary  on  ^Eneid  (3,  402).  According  to  Sophocles  (Philoc- 
tetes), the  wound  was  occasioned  by  the  bite  of  a  serpent  that  guarded  the  shrine  of  the 
nymph  Chryse,  on  an  islet  of  the  same  name  near  Lemnos. 


\o 


rill-:  (  i.Assic  M\  iHs 


221.  Paris  and  (Enone.  In  his  distress  Paris  bethought  him  of 
one  whom  in  his  prosperit\-  he  had  forgotten.  This  was  the  nymph 
'En6ne,  whom  he  had  married  when  a  youth  and  had  abandoned 
for  the  fatal  beauty  of  Helen.  (Xnone,  remembering  the  wrongs 
she  had  suffered,  refused  to  heal  the  wound  ;  and  Paris  went  back 
to  Troy  and  died.  CTLnone  quickly  repented  and  hastened  after  him 
with  remedies,  but  came  too  late,  and  in  her  grief  hanged  herself. 

222.  The  Palladium.  There  was  in  Troy  a  celebrated  statue 
of  Minerva  called  the  Palladium,    It  was  said  to  have  fallen  from 

heaven,  and  the  belief 
was  that  the  city  could 
not  be  taken  so  long 
as  this  statue  remained 
within  it.  Ulysses  and 
Diomede  entered  the 
city  in  disguise  and  suc- 
ceeded in  obtaining  the 
Palladium,  which  they 
carried  off  to  the  Gre- 
cian camp. 

223.  The  Wooden 
Horse.  But  Troy  still 
held  out.  The  Greeks 
began  to  despair  of  sub- 
duing it  by  force,  and  by 
advice  of  Ulysses  they  resorted  to  stratagem. ^  They  pretended  to 
be  making  preparations  to  abandon  the  siege  ;  and  a  number  of  the 
ships  were  withdrawn  and  concealed  behind  a  neighboring  island. 
They  then  constructed  an  immense  wooden  horse,  which  they  gave 
out  was  intended  as  a  propitiatory  offering  to  Minerv^a  ;  but  it  was, 
in  fact,  filled  with  armed  men.  The  rest  of  the  Greeks  then  betook 
themselves  to  their  ships  and  sailed  away,  as  if  for  a  final  depar- 
ture. The  Trojans,  seeing  the  encampment  broken  up  and  the  fleet 
gone,  concluded  that  the  enemy  had  abandoned  the  siege.  The 
gates  of  the  city  were  thrown  open,  and  the  whole  population  issued 
forth,  rejoicing  at  the  long-prohibited  liberty  of  passing  freely  over 

1  Virgil,  .'Eneid,  2, 


Fig.  164.   The  Wooden   Horse 


J 


^.^^. 


.s>^ 


\ 


LAOCOON 


THE  FALL  OF    IRON  31  i 

the  scene  of  the  late  encampment.  The  great  horse  was  the  chief 
object  of  curiosity.  .Some  recommended  that  it  be  taken  into  the 
city  as  a  trophy ;  others  felt  afraid  of  it.  While  they  hesitated, 
Laiocmn,  the  priest  of  Neptune,  exclaimed,  "  What  madness,  citi- 
zeiks,'  4s  this  !  Have  you  not  learned  enough  of  Grecian  fraud  to 
be  on  your  guard  against  it  ?  For  my  part,  I  fear  the  Greeks  even 
when  they  offer  gifts."  ^  So  saying,  he  threw  his  lance  at  the 
horse's  side.  It  struck,  and  a  hollow  sound  reverberated  like  a 
groan.  Then  perhaps  the  people  might  have  taken  his  advice  and 
destroyed  the  fatal  horse  with  its  contents,  but  just  at  that  moment 
a  group  of  people  appeared  dragging  forward  one  who  seemed  a 
prisoner  and  a  Greek.  Stupefied  with  terror,  the  captive  was 
brought  before  the  chiefs.  He  inforjiied  them  that  he  was  a  Greek, 
Sinon  by  name ;  and  that  in  consequence  of  the  malice  of  Ulysses, 
he  had  been  left  behind  by  his  countrymen  at  their  departure. 
With  regard  to  the  wooden  horse,  he  told  them  that  it  was  a  pro- 
pitiatory offering  to  Minerva,  and  had  been  made  so  huge  for  the 
express  purpose  of  preventing  its  being  carried  within  the  city ; 
for  Calchas  the  prophet  had  told  them  that  if  the  Trojans  took 
possession  of  it,  they  would  assuredly  triumph  over  the  Greeks. 

224.  Laocobn  and  the  Serpents.  This  language  turned  the  tide 
of  the  people's  feelings,  and  they  began  to  think  how  they  might 
best  secure  the  monstrous  horse  and  the  favorable  auguries  con- 
nected with  it,  when  suddenly  a  prodigy  occurred  which  left  no 
room  for  doubt.  There  appeared  advancing  over  the  sea  two  im- 
mense serpents.  They  came  upon  the  land  and  the  crowd  fled  in 
all  directions.  The  serpents  advanced  directly  to  the  spot  where 
Laocoon  stood  with  his  two  sons.  They  first  attacked  the  children, 
winding  round  their  bodies  and  breathing  pestilential  breath  in 
their  faces.     The   father,  attempting  to   rescue   them,   was   next 

seized  and  involved  in  the  serpent's  coils. 

.   .   .  Yam 
The  struggle;  vain,  against  the  coiling  strain 
And  gripe,  and  deepening  of  the  dragon's  grasp. 
The  old  man's  clinch ;  the  long  envenomed  chain 
Rivets  the  living  links,  —  the  enormous  asp 
Enforces  pang  on  pang,  and  stifles  gasp  on  gasp.- 

1  Timin  UiuMoi  et  dona  ferentes. —  /lineid,  2.  49.  ^  Byron,  C'hildc  Haioid. 


12 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


He  struggled  to  tear  them  away,  but  they  overpowered  all  his 
efforts  and  strangled  him  and  the  children  in  their  poisonous  folds. 
The  event  was  regarded  as  a  clear  indication  of  the  displeasure  of 
the  gods  at  Laocoon's  irreverent  treatment  of  the  wooden  horse, 
which  they  no  longer  hesitated  to  regard  as  a  sacred  object  and 
prepared  to  introduce  with  due  solemnity  into  the  city.  They  did 
so  with  songs  and  triumphal  acclamations,  and  the  day  closed  with 
festivity.  In  the  night  the  armed  men  who  were  inclosed  in  the 
body  of  the  horse,  being  let  out  bv  the  traitor  Sinon,  opened  the 


Fig.  165.    The  Sack  uf  Tkoy 
(Left  half) 

gates  of  the  city  to  their  friends  who  had  returned  under  cover  of 
the  night.  The  city  was  set  on  fire  ;  the  people,  overcome  with  feast- 
ing and  sleep,  were  put  to  the  sword,  and  Troy  completely  subdued. 
225.  The  Death  of  Priam.  Priam  lived  to  see  the  downfall  of 
his  kingdom  and  was  slain  at  last  on  the  fatal  night  when  the 
Greeks  took  the  city.  He  had  armed  himself  and  was  about  to 
mingle  with  the  combatants,^  but  was  prevailed  on  by  Hecuba  to 
take  refuge  with  his  daughters  and  herself  as  a  suppliant  at  the 
altar  of  Jupiter.  While  there,  his  youngest  son,  Polites,  pursued 
by  Pyrrhus,  the  son  of  Achilles,  rushed  in  wounded  and  expired 

1  Hecuba's  exclamation,  "  Not  such  aid  nor  such  defenders  does  the  time  require,"  has 

become  proverbial.  ,,  ,.         ...  ,  ,  ., 

Aotz  tall  auxilio  ncc  dcfctisorwits  is  lis 

Tcmpus  egci.  —  .I'Eneid,  2,  52 1. 


THE  FALL  OF  TROY 


313 


at  the  feet  of  his  father ;  whereupon  Priam,  overcome  with  indig- 
nation, hurled  his  spear  with  feeble  hand  against  Pyrrhus  and  was 
forthwith  slain  by  him. 

226.  The  Survivors.^  Queen  Hecuba  and  her  daughter  Cas- 
sandra were  carried  captives  to  Greece.  Cassandra  had  been  loved 
by  Apollo,  who  gave  her  the  gift  of  prophecy ;  but  afterwards  of- 
fended with  her,  he  had  rendered  the  gift  unavailing  by  ordaining 
that  her  predictions  should  never  be  believed.  Poly^^ena,  another 
daughter,  who  had  been  loved  by  Achilles,  was  demanded  by  the 


Fig.  166.   The  Sack  of  Troy 
(Right  half) 

ghost  of  that  warrior  and  was  sacrificed  by  the  Greeks  upon  his 
tomb.  Of  the  fate  of  the  white-armed  Andromache  we  have  already 
spoken.  She  was  carried  off  as  the  wife  of  Neoptolemus,  but  he 
was  faithful  to  her  for  only  a  short  time.  After  he  had  cast  her 
aside  she  married  Helenus,  a  brother  of  Hector,  and  still  later 
returned  to  Asia  Minor. 

227.  Helen,  Menelaiis,  and  Agamemnon.  On  the  fall  of  Troy, 
Menelaiis  recovered  possession  of  his  wife,  who,  it  seems,  had  not 
ceased  to  love  him,  though  she  had  yielded  to  the  might  of  Venus 
and  deserted  him  for  another."'^    After  the  death  of  Paris,  she  aided 

1  Euripides,  —  Troades,  Hecuba,  Andromache. 

-  According  to  Euripides  (Helen),  and  Stesichorus,  it  was  a  semblance  of  Helen  that 
Paris  won ;  the  real  Helen  went  to  Egypt. 


3 1 4  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

the  (jreeks  secretly  on  several  occasions  :  in  particular  when  Ulys- 
ses and  Diomede  entered  the  city  in  disguise  to  earn,-  off  the  Pal- 
ladium. She  then  saw  and  recognized  Ulysses,  but  kept  the  secret 
and  even  assisted  them  in  obtaining  the  image.  Thus  she  became 
reconciled  to  Menelalis,  and  they  were  among  the  first  to  leave  the 
shores  of  Troy  for  their  native  land.  But  having  incurred  the  dis- 
pleasure of  the  gods,  they  w-ere  driven  by  storms  from  shore  to 
shore  of  the  Mediterranean,  visiting  Cyprus,  Phoenicia,  and  Egypt. 
1  n  Egypt  they  were  kindly  treated  and  presented  with  rich  gifts,  of 
which  Helen's  share  was  a  golden  spindle  and  a  basket  on  wheels. 

.  .  .  Many  yet  adhere 
To  the  ancient  distaff  at  the  bosom  fixed, 
Casting  the  whirling  spindle  as  they  walk. 
.  .  .  This  was  of  old,  in  no  inglorious  days, 
The  mode  of  spinning,  when  the  Egyptian  prince 
A  golden  distaff  gave  that  beauteous  nymph, 
Too  beauteous  Helen;  no  uncourtly  gift.' 

Milton  also  alludes  to  a  famous  recipe  for  an  invigorating  draft, 
called  Nepenthe,  which  the  Eg}^ptian  queen  gave  to  Helen  : 

Not  that  Nepenthes  which  the  wife  of  'Ilionc 
In  Egypt  gave  to  Jove-born  Helena, 
Is  of  such  power  to  stir  up  joy  as  this. 
To  life  so  friendly  or  so  cool  to  thirst.- 

At  last,  arriving  in  safet\-  at  Sparta,  Menelaiis  and  Helen  re- 
sumed their  royal  dignity,  and  lived  and  reigned  in  splendor ;  and 
when  Telemachus,  the  son  of  Ulysses,  in  search  of  his  father, 
arrived  at  Sparta,  he  found  them  celebrating  the  marriage  of  their 
daughter  Hermione  to  Neoptolemus,  son  of  Achilles. 

Agamemnon^  was  not  so  fortunate  in  the  issue.  During  his 
absence  his  wife  Clvtemnestra  had  been  false  to  him  ;  and  when 
his  return  was  expected,  she  with  her  paramour,  ^^gisthus,  son  of 
Thyestes,  laid  a  plan  for  his  destruction.  Cassjindra  warned  the 
king,  but  as  usual  her  prophecy  was  not  regarded.  While  Aga- 
memnon was  bathing  previous  to  the  banquet  given  to  celebrate 
his  return,  the  conspirators  murdered  him. 

'  Dyer,  Jlic  I'lcecc.  -  Milton,  Comus.  3  .Kschylus,  Agamemnon. 


THE  FALL  OF  TK(JV 


3':) 


228.  Electra  and  Orestes,  It  was  the  intention  of  the  conspira 
tors  to  sla\-  his  son  Orestes  also,  a  lad  not  yet  old  enough  to  be  an 
object  of  apprehension,  but  from  whom,  if  he  should  be  suffered  to 
grow  up,  there  might  be  danger.  Electra,  the  sister  of  Orestes,  saved 
her  brother's  life  by  sending  him  secretly  to  his  uncle  Strophius, 
king  of  Phocis.  In  the  palace  of  Strophius,  Orestes  grew  up  with 
the  king's  son  Pylades,  and  formed  witli  him  a  friendship  which 
has  become  proverbial. 
Electra  frequently  re- 
minded her  brother 
by  messengers  of  the 
duty  of  avenging  his 
father's  death ;  he,  too, 
when  he  reached  ma- 
turity, consulted  the 
oracle  of  Delphi,  which 
confirmed  him  in  the 
design.  He  therefore 
repaired  in  disguise  to 
Argons,  pretending  to 
be  a  messenger  from 
Strophius,  who  would 
announce  the  death  of 
Orestes.  He  brought 
with  him  what  pur- 
ported to  be  the  ashes 
of  the  deceased  in  a 
funeral  urn.  After  vis- 
iting his  father's  tomb  and  sacrificing  upon  it,  according  to  the  rites 
of  the  ancients,  he  met  by  the  way  his  sister  Electra.  Mistaking  her 
for  one  of  the  domestics,  and  desirous  of  keeping  his  arrixal  a  secret 
till  the  hour  of  vengeance  should  arrive,  he  produced  the  ui"n.  At 
once  his  sister,  believing  Orestes  to  be  really  dead,  took  the  urn  from 
him,  and,  embracing  it,  poured  forth  her  grief  in  language  full  of  ten- 
derness and  despair.  Soon  a  recognition  was  effected,  and  the  prince, 
with  the  aid  of  his  sister,  slew  both  yEgisthus  and  Clytemnestra.^ 

1  .4;schylus,  Choephori ;  Sophocles,  Electra;  Euripides,  —  Electra,  Orestes. 


Fir;.  167.   Orestes  and  Electra  at  the  Tomb 
OF  Agamemnon     ■ 


Fig.  i68.   Orestes  pursued  by  Furies 


316  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

229.  Orestes  pursued  by  the  Furies. ^  This  revolting  act,  the 
slaughter  of  a  mother  by  her  son,  though  extenuated  by  the  guilt 
of  the  victim  and  the  express  command  of  the  gods,  did  not  fail 

to  awaken  in  the  breasts  of 
the  ancients  the  same  abhor- 
rence that  it  does  in  ours.  The 
Eumenides  seized  upon  Orestes 
and  drove  him  frantic  from  land 
to  land.  In  these  wanderings 
Pylades  accompanied  him  and 
watched  over  him.  At  length  in 
answer  to  a  second  appeal  to  the 
oracle,  Orestes  was  directed  to 
go  to  the  temple  of  the  Tauri  in  Scythia  and  to  bring  thence  a  statue 
of  Diana  which  was  believed  to  have  fallen  from  heaven.  Accord- 
ingly the  friends  went  to  the  Tauric  Chersonese.  Since  there  the 
barbarous  people  were 
accustomed  to  sacri- 
fice to  the  goddess  all 
strangers  who  fell  into 
their  hands,  the  two 
friends  were  seized 
and  carried  bound  to 
the  temple  to  be 
made  victims.  But 
the  priestess  of  Diana 
of  the  Tauri  was  no 
other  than  Iphigenia, 
the  sister  of  Orestes, 
who  had  been  snatched 
away  by  Diana  at  the 
moment  when  she  was 
about  to  be  sacrificed. 


Fig.  169.   Orestes  and  Pylades  before  the 
King  of  the  Tauri 


Ascertaining  from  the  prisoners  who  they  were,  Iphigenia  disclosed 
herself  to  them  ;  and  the  three  made  their  escape  with  the  statue 
of  the  goddess,  and  returned  to  Mycenas.^ 

1  .^schylus,  Eumenides,  2  Euripides,  Iphigenia  among  the  Taun. 


THE  FALL  OF  TROY 


17 


-  230.  His  Purification.  But  Orestes  was  not  yet  relieved  from 
the  vengeance  of  the  Erinyes.  Finally,  he  took  refuge  with 
Minerva  at  Athens.  The  goddess  afforded  him  protection  and 
appointed  the  court  of  Areopagus  to  decide  his  fate.  The  Erin- 
yes brought  their  accusation,  and  Orestes  pleaded  the  command 
of  the  Uelphic  oracle  as  his  excuse.  When  the  court  voted  and 
the  voices  were  equally  divided,  Orestes  was  aquitted  by  the  com- 
mand of  Minerva.  He  was  then  purified  with  plentiful  blood 
of  swine. 


CHAPTER    XXIV 


FHK    WANDERINGS    OI'    I  LYSSKS 


As  one  that  for  a  weary  space  has  lain 
Lulled  by  the  song  of  Circe  and  her  wine 
In  gardens  near  the  pale  of  Proserpine, 
Where  that  ^aean  isle  forgets  the  main, 
And  only  the  low  lutes  of  love  complain, 
And  only  shadows  of  wan  lovers  pine,  — 
\s  micli  an  one  were  glad  to  know  the  brine 

Salt  on  his  lips,  and  the  large  air  again. 

So,  gladly,   from    the   songs   of   modern 

speech 

Men  turn  and  sec    the  stars,  and  feel 

the  free 

Shrill   wind    beyond    the    close   of 

heavy  flowers ; 
And.  through  the  music  of  the  lan- 
guid hours. 
They  hear  like  ocean  on  a  western  beach 
The  surge  and  thunder  of  the  Odyssey.' 

231.  From  Troy  to  Phaeacia.  The 
OcH-ssey  of  Homer  narrates  the  wan- 
derings of  Ulysses  (Odysseus)  in  his 
return  from  Troy  to  his  own  kingdom, 
Ithaca.- 

I^'rom  Tro)-  the    ^•essels    first   made 
land  at  Ismarus,  eity  of  the  Ciconians, 
where,  in  a  skirmish  with  the  inhabitants. 
Ulysses  lost  six  men  from  each  ship.-^ 
232.   The    Lotos-eaters.    Sailing   thence    thev    were    overtaken  . 
by  a  storm  which  drove  them  for  nine  da\'s  till  they  reached  the 

'  Sonnet  by  Andrew  Lang. 

-  For  the  authorship  of  the  (Ulyssey,  see  §  298  (j)  ;  and  for  translations,  see  correspond- 
ing section  of  the  Commentary.  3  Odyssey,  9. 


Ki<; 


Ul.VSSKS 


N 

>,  J             THF   / 

1   1^1  UN     ^ 

-  ^       i 

^^V^'l/- 

=  '^4§^- 

y~  w 

=^v5:e  1 

I  x^?  \S 

2-^llt5 

) 

|^s.j:o 

1         THh  / 

►^^V==«5 

y^ii\ 

./---\ 

/.   TAe  inner  or  real  Geography  is 
indicated  by  fieavy  shading: 

II.  Voyage  of  Ulysses,  by  broken  line. 

III.  Identified    places,    by    shaded 
boundary  lines.    They  are  often  irans- 


THE  .ETHIOPIANS 

dwellirig  far  awuy^  tvho  art 

divided  into  two  parts, 

the  most  distant  of  men 

0<L  I.  22  3. 

X  B.  Where  the  arrows  are  doubled  on  the  aame  line  ofdotn,  the 
meanijig  is,  that  the  passage  was  made  both  ways. 


THE  WANDERINGS  OF  ULYSSES  319 

country  of  the  Lotos-eaters,  Here,  after  watering,  Ulysses  sent 
three  of  his  men  to  discover  who  the  inhabitants  were.  These 
men  on  coming  among  the  Lotos-eaters  were  kindly  entertained 
by  them  and  were  given  some  of  their  own  food,  the  lotos  plant, 
to  eat.  The  effect  of  this  food  was  such  that  those  who  partook 
of  it  lost  all  thought  of  home  and  wished  to  remain  in  that  country. 
It  was  by  main  force  that  Ulysses  dragged  these  men  away,  and  he 
was  even  obliged  to  tie  them  under  the  benches  of  his  ship. 

Tennyson  in  The  Lotos-eaters  has  fittingly  expressed  the  dreamy, 
languid  feeling  which  the  lotus-food  is  said  to  have  produced. 

.  .  .  How  sweet  it  were,  hearing  the  downward  stream. 

With  half-shut  eyes  ever  to  seem 

Falling  asleep  in  a  half-dream  ! 

To  dream  and  dream,  like  yonder  amber  light 

Which  will  not  leave  the  myrrh-bush  on  the  height ; 

To  hear  each  other's  whisper'd  speech  ; 

Eating  the  Lotos,  day  by  day. 

To  watch  the  crisping  ripples  on  the  beach, 

And  tender  curving  lines  of  creamy  spray ; 

To  lend  our  hearts  and  spirits  wholly 

To  the  influence  of  mild-minded  melancholy ; 

To  muse  and  brood  and  live  again  in  memory, 

With  those  old  faces  of  our  infancy 

Heap'd  over  with  a  mound  of  grass, 

Two  handfuls  of  white  dust,  shut  in  an  urn  of  brass ! 

Dear  is  the  memory  of  our  wedded  lives. 

And  dear  the  last  embraces  of  our  wives 

And  their  warm  tears :  but  all  hath  suffer'd  change ; 

For  surely  now  our  household  hearths  are  cold : 

Our  sons  inherit  us :  our  looks  are  strange  : 

And  we  should  come  like  ghosts  to  trouble  joy. 

.  .  .   But,  propt  on  beds  of  amaranth  and  moly, 

How  sweet  (while  warm  airs  lull  us,  blowing  lowly) 

With  half-dropt  eyelid  still, 

Beneath  a  heaven  dark  and  holy. 

To  watch  the  long  bright  river  drawing  slowly 

His  waters  from  the  purple  hill  — 

To  hear  the  dewy  echoes  calling 


320  I'HE  CJ.ASSIC   MYTHS 

From  cave  to  cave  thro'  the  thick-twined  vine  — 

To  vifatch  the  emerald-color'd  water  falling 

Thro'  many  a  wov'n  acanthus-wreath  divine  .' 

Only  to  hear  and  see  the  far-off  sparkling  brine. 

Only  to  hear  were  sweet,  stretch'd  out  beneath  the  pine. 

The  Lotos  blooms  below  the  barren  peak  : 

'I'he  Lotos  blows  by  every  winding  creek  : 

All  day  the  wind  breathes  low  with  mellower  lone  : 

Thro'  every  hollow  cave  and  alley  lone 

Round  and  round  the  spicy  downs  the  yellow  Lotos-dust  is  blown. 

We  have  had  enough  of  action,  and  of  motion  we, 

RoU'd  to  starboard,  roll'd  to  larboard,  when  the  surge  was  seething  free. 

Where  the  wallowing  monster  spouted  his  foam-fountains  in  the  sea. 

Let  us  swear  an  oath,  and  keep  it  with  an  equal  mind, 

In  the  hollow  Lotos-land  to  live  and  lie  reclined 

On  the  hills  like  Gods  together,  careless  of  mankind.  .  .  . 

233.  The  Cyclopes.  They  next  arrived  at  the  country  of  the 
Cyclopes,  The  Cyclopes  ^  inhabited  an  island  of  which  they  were 
the  only  possessors.  They  dwelt  in  caves  and  fed  on  the  wild  pro- 
ductions of  the  island  and  on  what  their  flocks  yielded,  for  thev 
were  shepherds.  Ulysses  left  the  main  body  of  his  ships  at  anchor, 
and  with  one  vessel  went  t(3  the  Cyclopes'  island  to  explore  for 
supplies.  He  landed  with  his  companions,  carrying  with  them  a 
jar  of  wine  for  a  present.  Coming  to  a  large  cave  they  entered  it, 
and,  finding  no  one  within,  examined  its  contents.  They  found  it 
stored  with  the  riches  of  the  flock,  quantities  of  cheese,  pails  and 
bowls  of  milk,  lambs  and  kids  in  their  pens,  all  in  good  order, 
Tresently  arrived  the  master  of  the  cave,  Polyphemus,  bearing  an 
immense  bundle  of  firewood,  which  he  threw  down  before  the 
cavern's  mouth.  He  then  drove  into  the  cave  the  sheep  and  goats 
to  be  milked,  and,  entering,  rolled  to  the  cave's  mouth  an  enor- 
mous rock,  that  twenty  oxen  could  not  draw.  Next  he  sat  down 
and  milked  his  ewes,  preparing  a  part  for  cheese  and  setting  the 
rest  aside  for  his  customary  drink.  Then  turning  round  his  one 
huge  eye  he  discerned  the  strangers,  and  growled  out  at  them,  de- 
manding who  they  were  and  where  from,  Ulysses  replied  most 
iiumbly,  stating  that  they  were  Greeks  from  the  great  expedition 


THE  WANDERINGS  OF  ULYSSES  32 1 

that  had  lately  won  so  much  glory  in  the  conquest  of  Troy,  that 
they  were  now  on  their  way  home,  and  finished  by  imploring  his 
hospitality  in  the  name  of  the  gods.  Polyphemus  deigned  no 
answer,  but  reaching  out  his  hand  seized  two  of  the  men,  whom 
he  hurled  against  the  side  of  the  cave  and  dashed  out  their  brains. 
He  proceeded  to  devour  them  with  great  relish,  and  having  made 
a  hearty  meal,  stretched  himself  on  the  floor  to  sleep.  Ulysses 
was  tempted  to  seize  the  opportunity  and  plunge  his  sword  into 
him  as  he  slept,  but  recollected  that  it  would  only  expose  them  all 
to  certain  destruction,  as  the  rock  with  which  the  giant  had  closed 
up  the  door  was  far  beyond  their  power  to  remove,  and  they  would 
therefore  be  in  hopeless  imprisonment. 

Next  morning  the  giant  seized  two  more  of  the  men  and  dis- 
patched them  in  the  same  manner  as  their  companions,  feasting 
on  their  flesh  till  no  fragment  was  left.  He  then  moved  away  the 
rock  from  the  door,  dro\'e  out  his  flocks,  and  went  out,  carefully  re- 
placing the  barrier  after  him.  When  he  was  gone  Ulysses  planned 
how  he  might  take  vengeance  for  his  murdered  friends  and  effect 
his  escape  with  his  surviving  companions.  He  made  his  men  pre- 
pare a  massive  bar  of  wood  cut  by  the  Cyclops  for  a  staff,  which 
they  found  in  the  cave.  The}'  sharpened  the  end  of  the  staff  and 
seasoned  it  in  the  fire,  and  hid  it  under  the  straw  on  the  cavern 
floor.  Then  four  of  the  boldest  were  selected,  with  whom  Ulysses 
joined  himself  as  a  fifth.  The  Cyclops  came  home  at  evening, 
rolled  away  the  stone,  and  drove  in  his  flock  as  usual.  After 
milking  them  and  making  his  arrangements  as  before,  he  seized 
two  more  of  Ulysses'  companions,  dashed  their  brains  out,  and 
made  his  evening  meal  upon  them  as  he  had  on  the  others.  After 
he  had  supped,  Ulysses  approaching  him  handed  him  a  bowl  of 
wine,  saying,  "'  Cyclops,  this  is  wine  ;  taste  and  drink  after  thy 
meal  of  man's  flesh."  He  took  and  drank  it,  and  was  hugely 
delighted  with  it,  and  called  for  more.  Ulysses  supplied  him  once 
and  again,  which  pleased  the  giant  so  much  that  he  promised  him 
as  a  favor  that  he  should  be  the  last  of  the  party  devoured.  He 
asked  his  name,  to  which  Ulysses  replied,  "  My  name  is  Neman." 

After  his  supper  the  giant  sought  his  repose,  and  was  soon 
sound  asleep.    Then  Ulysses  with  his  four  select  friends  held  the 


322 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


end  of  the  stake  in  the  fire  till  it  was  one  burning  coal,  then  pois- 
ing it  exactly  above  the  giant's  only  eye,  they  plunged  it  deep  into 
the  socket,  twirling  it  round  as  a  carpenter  does  his  auger.  The 
howling  monster  with  his  outcry  filled  the  cavern,  and  Ulysses 
with  his  aids  nimbly  got  out  of  his  way  and  concealed  themselves 
in  the  cave.  He,  bellowing,  called  aloud  on  all  the  Cyclopes 
dwelling  in  the  caves  around  him,  far  and  near.  They,  on  his  cry, 
flocked  round  the  den,  and  inquired  what  grievous  hurt  had  caused 
him  to  sound  such  an  alarm  and  break  their  slumbers.    He  replied, 


Fio.  171.    Boring  out  the  Cycloi's'  Eye 

"  O  friends,  I  die,  and  Noman  gives  the  blow."  They  answered, 
"  If  no  man  hurts  thee,  it  is  the  stroke  of  Jove,  and  thou  must 
bear  it."    So  saying,  they  left  him  groaning. 

Next  morning  the  Cyclops  rolled  away  the  stone  to  let  his  flock 
out  to  pasture,  but  planted  himself  in  the  door  of  the  cave  to  feel 
of  all  as  they  went  out,  that  Ulysses  and  his  men  should  not  es- 
cape with  them.  But  Ulysses  had  made  his  men  harness  the  rams 
of  the  flock  three  abreast,  with  osiers  which  they  found  on  the 
floor  of  the  cave.  To  the  middle  ram  of  the  three  one  of  the 
Greeks  suspended  himself,  so  protected  by  the  exterior  rams  on 
either  side.  As  they  passed,  the  giant  felt  of  the  animals'  backs 
and  sides,  but  never  thought  of  their  bellies  ;  so  the  men  all  passed 
safe,  Ulysses  himself  being  on,  the  last  one  that  passed.  When 
they  had  got  a  few  paces  from  the  cavern,  Ulysses  and  his  friends 
released  themselves  from  their  rams  and  drove  a  good  part  of  the 


THE  WANDERINGS  OF  ULYSSES 


Fic. 


Ulysses  and  Two  Companions  under 
Rams 


flock  down  to  the  shore  to  their  boat.  They  put  them  aboard  with 
all  haste,  then  pushed  off  from  the  shore ;  and  when  at  a  safe  dis- 
tance Ulysses  shouted  out,  "  Cyclops,  the  gods  have  well  requited 
thee  for  thy  atrocious  deeds.  Know  it  is  Ulysses  to  whom  thou 
owest  thy  shameful  loss  of  sight."  The  Cyclops,  hearing  this, 
seized  a  rock  that  projected  from  the  side  of  the  mountain,  and 
rending  it  from  its  bed, 
he  lifted  it  high  in  the 
air,  then  exerting  all 
his  force,  hurled  it  in 
the  direction  of  the 
voice.  Down  came  the 
mass,  just  forward  of 
the  vessel.  The  ocean, 
at  the  plunge  of  the 
huge  rock,  heaved  the 

ship  toward  Polyphemus  ;  but  a  second  rock  which  he  hurled, 
striking  aft,  propelled  them  fortunately  in  the  direction  that  the\- 
desired  to  take.  Ulysses  was  about  to  hail  the  giant  again,  but  his 
friends  besought  him  not  to  do  so.  He  could  not  forbear,  how- 
ever, letting  the  giant  know  that  they  had  escaped  his  missile, 
but  waited  till  they  had  reached  a  safer  distance  than  before. 
The  giant  answered  them  with  curses,  while  Ulysses  and  his 
friends,  plying  their  oars  vigorously,  regained  their  companions. 
234.  The  Bag  of  Winds.  Ulysses  next  arrived  at  the  island  of 
y^iolus.^  He  treated  Ulysses  hospitably,  and  at  his  departure  gave 
him,  tied  up  in  a  leathern  bag  with  a  silver  string,  such  winds  as 
might  be  hurtful  and  dangerous,  commanding  fair  winds  to  blow 
the  barks  toward  their  country.  Nine  days  they  sped  before  the 
wind,  and  all  that  time  Ulysses  had  stood  at  the  helm  without 
sleep.  At  last  quite  exhausted  he  lay  down  to  sleep.  While 
he  slept,  the  crew  conferred  together  about  the  mysterious  bag, 
and  concluded  it  must  contain  treasures  given  by  the  hospitable 
King  ^olus  to  their  commander.  Tempted  to  secure  some  por- 
tion for  themselves,  they  loosed  the  string,  when  immediately 
the  winds  rushed  forth.    The  ships  were  driven  far  from  their 

1  Odyssey,  lo. 


324  THE  CLASSIC    M\  IHS 

course  and  back  again  to  the  island  they  had  just  left.  /Eolus. 
indignant  at  their  folly,  refused  to  assist  them  further,  and  thev 
were  obliged  to  labor  o\-er  their  course  once  more  by  means  of 
their  oars. 

235.  The  Laestrygonians.  Their  next  adventure  was  with  the 
barbarous  tribe  of  Lasstrygonians.  The  vessels  all  pushed  into  the 
harbor,  tempted  by  the  secure  appearance  of  the  cove,  completely 
landlocked  ;  only  Ulysses  moored  his  vessel  without.  As  soon  as 
the  Laestrygonians  found  the  ships  completely  in  their  power,  they 
attacked  them,  heaving  huge  stones  which  broke  and  overturned 
them,  while  with  their  spears  they  dispatched  the  seamen  as  they 
struggled  in  the  water.  All  the  vessels  with  their  crews  were 
destroyed,  except  Ulysses'  own  ship  which  had  remained  outside. 
He,  finding  no  safety  but  in  flight,  exhorted  his  men  to  ply  their 
oars  vigorously  ;  and  they  escaped. 

236.  The  Isle  of  iEaea.  With  grief  for  their  slain  companions 
mixed  with  joy  at  their  own  escape,  they  pursued  their  way  till  they 
arrived  at  the  ^'Eaean  isle,  where  Circe  dwelt,  the  daughter  of  the 
sun.  Landing  here,  Ulysses  climbed  a  hill  and,  gazing  round,  saw 
no  signs  of  habitation  except  in  one  spot  at  the  center  of  the 
island,  where  he  perceived  a  palace  embowered  with  trees.  He  sent 
forward  one  half  of  his  crew,  under  the  command  of  Eur)'lochus, 
to  see  what  prospect  of  hospitality  they  might  find.  As  they  ap- 
proached the  palace,  they  found  themselves  surrounded  by  lions, 
tigers,  and  wolves,  not  fierce,  but  tamed  by  Circe's  art,  for  she  was 
a  powerful  magician.  These  animals  had  once  been  men,  but  had 
been  changed  by  Circe's  enchantments  into  the  forms  of  beasts. 
The  sounds  of  soft  music  were  heard  from  within,  and  a  sweet 
female  voice  singing.  Eur}'lochus  called  aloud,  and  the  goddess 
came  forth  and  invited  them  in  ;  they  all  gladly  entered  except 
Eurylochus,  who  suspected  danger.  The  goddess  conducted  her 
guests  to  a  seat,  and  had  them  ser\^ed  with  wine  and  other  deli- 
cacies. When  thev  had  feasted  heartily,  she  touched  them  one  by 
one  with  her  wand,  and  they  became  immediately  changed  into 
swine,  in  "head,  body,  voice,  and  bristles,"  yet  with  their  intel- 
lects as  before.  She  shut  them  in  her  styes  and  supplied  them 
with  acorns  and  such  other  things  as  swine  love. 


THE  WANDERINGS  OF  ULYSSES  325 

Eurylochus  hurried  back  to  the  ship  and  told  the  tale.  Ulysses 
thereupon  determined  to  go  himself  and  try  if  by  any  means  he 
might  deliver  his  companions.  As  he  strode  onward  alone,  he  met 
a  youth  who  addressed  him  familiarly,  appearing  to  be  acquainted 


OAirZEl  TO    MHAT    EPMHZ 


EKTHZ   AlHrHIHOZ      THZ     HPOZ       AAKINOTNTOT    KAHRA 


Fig.  173.   The  Castle  of  Circe 

with  his  adventures.  He  announced  himself  as  Mercury,  and  in- 
formed Ulysses  of  the  arts  of  Circe  and  of  the  danger  of  approach- 
ing her.  As  Ulysses  was  not  to  be  dissuaded  from  his  attempt. 
Mercury  provided  him  with  a  spjig  of  the  plant  Moly,  of  wonder- 
ful power  to  resist  sorceries,  and  instructed  him  how  to  act. 

Meanwhile  the  companions  of  Ulysses  made  mournful  plaint  to 
their  cruel  niistress  : 


Huddling  they  came,  with  shag  sides  caked  of  mire,  — 
With  hoofs  fresh  sullied  from  the  troughs  o'er-turned,  — 
With  wrinkling  snouts,  —  yet  eyes  in  which  desire 
Of  some  strange  thing  unutterably  burned, 
Unquenchable  ;  and  still  where'er  She  turned 


320  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

They  rose  about  her,  striving  each  o'er  each, 
With  restless,  fierce  importuning  that  yearned 
Through  those  brute  masks  some  piteous  tale  to  teach, 
Yet  lacked  the  words  thereto,  denied  the  power  of  speech.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  "If  swine  we  be,  —  if  we  indeed  be  swine, 
Daughter  of  Perse,  make  us  swine  indeed, 
Well-pleased  on  litter-straw  to  lie  supine,  — 
Well-pleased  on  mast  and  acorn-shales  to  feed, 
Stirred  by  all  instincts  of  the  bestial  breed  ; 
But  O  Unmerciful !     O  Pitiless  ! 
Leave  us  not  thus  with  sick  men's  hearts  to  bleed !  — 
To  waste  long  days  in  yearning,  dumb  distress. 
And  memory  of  things  gone,  and  utter  hopelessness ! 

..."  Make  thou  us  men  again,  —  if  men  but  groping 
That  dark  Hereafter  which  th'  Olympians  keep  ; 
Make  thou  us  men  again,  —  if  men  but  hoping 
Behind  death's  doors  security  of  sleep  ;  — 
For  yet  to  laugh  is  somewhat,  and  to  sleep ;  — 
To  feel  delight  of  living,  and  to  plow 
The  salt-blown  acres  of  the  shoreless  deep  ;  — 
Better,  —  yea  better  far  all  these  than  bow 
Foul  faces  to  foul  earth,  and  yearn  —  as  we  do  now  !  " 

So  they  in  speech  unsyllabled.    But  She, 
The  fair-tressed  Goddess,  born  to  be  their  bane, 
Uplifting  straight  her  wand  of  ivory. 
Compelled  them  groaning  to  the  styes  again ; 
Where  they  in  hopeless  bitterness  were  fain 
To  rend  the  oaken  woodwork  as  before, 
And  tear  the  troughs  in  impotence  of  pain,  — 
Not  knowing,  they,  that  even  at  the  door 
Divine  Odysseus  stood,  — ■  as  Hermes  told  of  yore.^ 

Ulysses,  reaching  the  palace,  was  courteously  received  by  Circe, 
who  entertained  him  as  she  had  done  his  companions,  but  after 
he  had  eaten  and  drunk,  touched  him  with  her  wand,  saying, 
""  Hence,  seek  the  stye  and  wallow  with  thy  friends."  But  he,  in- 
stead of  obeying,  drew  his  sword  and  rushed  upon  her  with  fury 
in  his  countenance.    She  fell  on  her  knees  and  begged  for  mercy. 

1  From  Austin  Dobson's  Prayer  of  the  Swine  to  Circe. 


THE  WANDERINGS  OF  ULYSSES  327 

He  dictated  a  solemn  oath  that  she  would  release  his  companions 
and  practice  no  further  harm  against  him  or  them  ;  and  she  re- 
peated it,  at  the  same  time  promising  to  dismiss  them  all  in  safety 
after  hospitably  entertaining  them.  She  was  as  good  as  her  word. 
The  men  were  restored  to  their  shapes,  the  rest  of  the  crew  sum- 
moned from  the  shore,  and  all  magnificently  entertained  day  after 
day,  till  Ulysses  seemed  to  have  forgotten  his  native  land  and  to 
have  reconciled  himself  to  an  inglorious  life  of  ease  and  pleasure. 

237.  Ulysses  visits  Hades.  At  length  his  companions  recalled 
him  to  nobler  sentiments,  and  he  received  their  admonition  grate- 
fully. Circe,  won  over  by  his  prayers,  consented  to  send  him  on 
his  homeward  way.  But  she  warned  him  that  first  he  must  perform 
another  journey,  must  visit  the  Underworld  and  there  learn  from 
the  shade  of  Tiresias,  the  blind  prophet  of  Thebes,  the  way  and 
measure  of  his  path,  and  how  to  proceed  to  Ithaca  over  the 
teeming  deep. 

"  But  who  will  guide  us  ?  "  queried  Ulysses  in  amaze  ;  "  for  no 
man  ever  yet  sailed  to  hell  in  a  black  ship." 

"  Son  of  Laertes,"  replied  the  Goddess,  "  Ulysses  of  many  de- 
vices, nay,  trouble  not  thyself  for  want  of  a  guide,  by  thy  ship 
abiding,  but  set  up  the  mast  and  spread  abroad  the  white  sails  and 
sit  thee  down  ;  and  the  breeze  of  the  North  Wind  will  bear  thy 
vessel  on  her  way.  But  when  thou  hast  now  sailed  in  thy  ship 
across  the  stream  Oceanus  where  is  a  waste  shore  and  the  groves 
of  Persephone,  even  tall  poplar  trees  and  willows  that  shed  their 
fruit  before  the  season,  there  beach  thy  ship  by  deep-eddying 
Oceanus,  but  go  thyself  to  the  dank  house  of  Hades.  Thereby 
into  Acheron  flows  Pyriphlegethon,  and  Cocytus,  a  branch  of  the 
water  of  the  Styx  ;  and  there  is  a  rock,  and  the  meeting  of  the 
two  roaring  waters.  There  dig  a  trench  and  pour  a  drink  offering 
to  all  the  dead,  mead  and  sweet  wine  and  water,  sprinkling  white 
meal  thereon.  And  when  thou  hast  prayed  to  them,  offer  up  a  ram 
and  a  black  ewe.  Then  will  many  spirits  come  to  thee  of  the  dead 
that  be  departed  ;  but  thou  shalt  draw  thy  sharp  sword  and  suffer 
them  not  to  approach  the  blood,  ere  thou  hast  word  of  Tiresias."  ^ 

'Odyssey,  ip:  adapted  from  Butcher  and  Lang's  translation.  So  the  following  from 
Odyssey,  n, 


328  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

So  Ulysses  and  his  companions  did  as  they  were  bid.  And  the 
ship  came  to  the  hmits  of  the  world,  to  the  deep-flowing  Oceanus. 
There  is  the  land  and  city  of  the  Cimmerians,  where  no  ray  of 
sunshine  ever  falls,  but  deadly  night  is  outspread  over  miserable 
mortals.  And  there  Ulysses  and  those  with  him  performed  the 
drink  offering  and  the  prayer  and  the  sacrifice  ;  and  Ulysses  fended 
off  the  spirits  of  the  dead  from  the  blood  until  the  soul  of  the 
Theban  prophet  arrived.  And  that  one,  having  drunk  of  the  dark 
blood,  declared  unto  Ulysses  the  future  of  his  way  :  how  the  Earth- 
shaker,  god  of  the  waters,  should  oppose  him,  but  how  he  should 
win  home  without  further  disaster  if,  when  passing  the  isle  Thri- 
nacia,  he  would  but  restrain  the  spirit  of  his  men  so  that  they 
should  do  no  injury  to  the  cattle  of  the  Sun  grazing  thereon.  If, 
however,  these  cattle  were  not  respected  but  hurt,  then  there  should 
follow  ruin  for  both  ship  and  men  ;  and  Ulysses  himself  on  the 
ship  of  strangers  should  return  late  in  time  to  his  home,  to  find 
sorrows  there,  proud  men  wasting  his  patrimony  and  wooing  his 
godlike  wife  to  wed  her.  But  that  he  should  avenge  their  violence, 
and  settle  his  affairs  at  home,  and  then  betake  himself  again  to 
wandering ;  and  that  from  the  sea  should  his  own  death  come,  — 
"  the  gentlest  death  that  may  be,  which  shall  end  thee  fordone 
with  smooth  old  age  ;  and  the  folk  shall  dwell  happily  around  thee." 

In  the  land  of  Hades,  Ulysses  saw  also  the  shade  of  his  mother, 
and  spoke  with  her  of  his  father  and  of  Penelope,  his  wife,  and  of 
his  son  Telemachus.  And  he  saw  also  the  shades  of  Antiope  and 
Alcmene  and  Phaedra  and  Procris ;  and  of  Agamemnon,  and 
Achilles,  and  Ajax,  the  son  of  Telamon,  and  of  many  others, 
and  spoke  with  them  of  their  own  fates  and  of  the  affairs  of  the 
upper  world. 

238.  The  Sirens.  Returning  from  the  abode  of  the  shades, 
Ulysses  revisited  the  yEaean  isle  and  recounted  to  Circe  his  adven- 
tures and  the  wondrous  visions  and  the  laws  of  Hell.  She  in  re- 
turn speeded  his  homeward  voyage,  instructing  him  particularly 
how  to  pass  safely  by  the  coast  of  the  Sirens. ^ 

These  nymphs  had  the  power,  as  has  been  already  said,  of 
charming  by  their  song  all  who  heard  them,   so  that  mariners 

1  Odyssey,  12. 


THE  WANDERINGS  OF  ULYSSES 


were  impelled  to  cast  themselves  into  the  sea  to  destruction.   Circe 

directed  Ulysses  to  stop  the  ears  of  his  seamen  with  wax,  so  that 

they  should  not  hear  the  strain  ;  to  have  himself  bound  to  the 

mast,  and  to  enjoin  his  people,  whatever  he  might  say  or  do,  b\" 

no  means  to  release  him  till  they  should  have  passed  the  Sirens' 

island.    Ulysses  obeyed  these  directions.    As  they  approached  the 

Sirens'  island,  the  sea  was  calm,  and  over  the  waters  came  notes 

of  music  so  ravishing  and  attractive  that  L^ysses  struggled  to  get 

loose  and,  by  cries  and 

signs    to    his    people, 

begged  to  be  released  ; 

but  they,  obedient  to  his 

previous  orders,  sprang 

forward    and    bound 

him  still  faster.    They 

held  on  their  course, 

and   the    music    grew 

fainter  till  it  ceased  to 

be   heard,  when   with 

joy  Ulysses    gave  his 

companions  the  signal 

to   unseal  their  ears  ; 


Fig.  174.   Ulysses  and  the  Sirens 


and  they  relieved  him  from  his  bonds.  It  is  said  that  one  of  the 
Sirens,  Parthenope,  in  grief  at  the  escape  of  Ulysses  drowned  her- 
self. Her  body  was  cast  up  on  the  Italian  shore  where  now  stands 
the  city  of  Naples,  in  early  times  called  by  the  Siren's  name. 

239.  Scylla  and  Charybdis.  Ulysses  had  been  warned  by  Circe 
of  the  two  monsters  Scylla  and  Char)-bdis.  We  have  already  met 
with  Scylla  in  the  myth  of  Glaucus.  She  dwelt  in  a  cave  high  up 
on  the  cliff,  from  whence  she  was  accustomed  to  thrust  forth  her 
long  necks  (for  she  had  six  heads),  and  in  each  of  her  mouths  to 
seize  one  of  the  crew  of  every  vessel  passmg  within  reach.  The 
other  terror,  Charybdis,  was  a  gulf  nearly  on  a  level  with  the 
water.  Thrice  each  day  the  water  rushed  into  a  frightful  chasm, 
and  thrice  was  disgorged.  Any  vessel  coming  near  the  whirlpool 
when  the  tide  was  rushing  in  must  inevitably  be  engulfed ;  not 
Neptune  himself  could  save  it.    On  approaching  the  haunt  of  the 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


dread  monsters,  Ulysses  kept  strict  watch  to  discover  them.  The 
roar  of  the  waters  as  Charybdis  engulfed  them  gave  warning  at 
a  distance,  but  Scylla  could  nowhere  be  discerned.    While  Ulysses 

and  his  men  watched  with  anx- 


ii 


Fig.  175.    Llv:,.>k»  ami  .^._\i.i,a 


ious  eyes  the  dreadful  whirl- 
pool, they  were  not  equally  on 
their  guard  from  the  attack 
of  Scylla,^  and  the  monster, 
darting  forth  her  snaky  heads, 
caught  six  of  his  men  and  bore 
them  away  shrieking  to  her 
den.  Ulysses  was  unable  to 
afford  any  assistance. 

240.  The  Cattle  of  the  Sun. 
Both  Tiresias  and  Circe  had 
warned  him  of  another  danger. 
After  passing  Scylla  and  Charybdis  the  next  land  he  would  make 
was  Thrinacia,  an  island  whereon  were  pastured  the  cattle  of 
Helios,  the  Sun,  tended  by  his  daughters  Lampetia  and  Phaethusa. 
These  flocks  must  not  be  violated,  whatever  the  wants  of  the  voy- 
agers might  be.  If  this  injunction  were  transgressed,  destruction 
was  sure  to  fall  on  the  offenders.  Ulysses  would  willingly  have 
passed  the  island  of  the  Sun  without  stopping,  but  his  companions 
so  urgently  pleaded  for  the  rest  and  refreshment  that  would  be 
derived  from  anchoring  and  passing  the  night  on  shore,  that 
Ulysses  yielded.  He  made  them  swear,  however,  not  to  touch  the 
sacred  flocks  and  herds,  but  to  content  themselves  with  what  pro- 
vision they  yet  had  left  of  the  supply  which  Circe  had  put  on 
board.  So  long  as  this  supply  lasted  the  people  kept  their  oath  ; 
but  contrary  winds  detained  them  at  the  island  for  a  month,  and 
after  consuming  all  their  stock  of  provisions,  they  were  forced  to 
rely  upon  the  birds  and  fishes  they  could  catch.  Famine  pressed 
them,  and  at  last,  in  the  absence  of  Ulysses,  they  slew  some  of  the 
cattle,  vainly  attempting  to  make  amends  for  the  deed  by  offering 
from  them  a  portion  to  the  offended  powers.  Ulysses,  on  his 
return  to  the  shore,  was  horror-struck  at  perceiving  what  they  had 

1  Incidit  in  Scyllam,  ciipiens  vitare  Charybdim, 


^^J-  - 


FLYING  MERCURY 


THE  WANDERINGS  OF  ULYSSES  331 

done,  and  the  more  so  on  account  of  the  portentous  signs  which 
followed.  The  skins  crept  on  the  ground,  and  the  joints  of  meat 
lowed  on  the  spits  while  roasting. 

The  wind  becoming  fair,  they  sailed  from  the  island.  They  had 
not  gone  far  when  the  weather  changed,  and  a  storm  of  thunder 
and  lightning  ensued.  A  stroke  of  lightning  shattered  their  mast, 
which  in  its  fall  killed  the  pilot.  At  last  the  vessel  itself  went  to 
pieces.  The  keel  and  mast  floating  side  by  side,  Ulysses  formed  of 
them  a  raft  to  which  he  clung ;  and,  the  wind  changing,  the  waves 
bore  him  to  Calypso's  island.    All  the  rest  of  the  crew  perished. 

241.  Calypso's  Island.  Calypso,  a  sea-nymph,  received  Ulysses 
hospitably,  entertained  him  magnificently,  became  enamored  of 
him,  and  wished  to  retain  him  forever,  offering  him  immor- 
tality. He  remained  with  her  seven  long  years.  But  he  persisted 
in  his  resolution  to  return  to  his  country  and  his  wife  and  son.^ 
Calypso  at  last  received  the  command  of  Jove  to  dismiss  him. 
Mercury  brought  the  message  to  her  and  found  her  in  her  grotto. 

A  garden  vine,  luxuriant  on  all  sides, 
Mantled  the  spacious  cavern,  cluster-hung 
Profuse ;  four  fountains  of  serenest  lymph, 
Their  sinuous  course  pursuing  side  by  side, 
Strayed  all  around,  and  everywhere  appeared 
Meadows  of  softest  verdure,  purpled  o'er 
With  violets ;  it  was  a  scene  to  fill 
A  god  from  heaven  with  wonder  and  delight.^ 

Calypso,  with  much  reluctance,  proceeded  to  obey  the  commands 
of  Jupiter.  She  supplied  Ulysses  with  the  means  of  constructing 
a  raft,  provisioned  it  well  for  him,  and  gave  him  a  favoring  gale. 
He  sped  on  his  course  prosperously  for  many  days,  till  at  last, 
when  in  sight  of  land,  a  storm  arose  that  broke  his  mast  and 
threatened  to  rend  the  raft  asunder.  In  this  crisis  he  was  seen 
by  a  compassionate  sea-nymph,  Leucothea,  who,  in  the  form  of  a 
cormorant,  alighted  on  the  raft  and  presented  him  with  a  girdle, 
directing  him  to  bind  it  beneath  his  breast,  that,  if  he  should  be 
compelled  to  trust  himself  to  the  waves,  it  might  buoy  him  up  and 
enable  him  to  reach  the  land. 

1  Odyssey,  i,  lo.  ~  Odyssey,  5,  64  (Cowper's  translation). 


dd^ 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS    "     ' 


242.  The  Land  of  the  Phaeacians.  Ulysses  clung  to  the  raft  so 
long  as  its  timbers  held  together,  and  when  it  no  longer  yielded 
him  support,  binding  the  girdle  around  him,  he  swam.  Minerva 
smoothed  the  billows  before  him  and  sent  him  a  wind  that  rolled 
the  waves  towards  the  shore.  The  surf  beat  high  on  the  rocks 
and  seemed  to  forbid  approach  ;  but  at  length  finding  calm  water 
at  the  mouth  of  a  gentle  stream,  he  landed,  spent  with  toil,  breath- 
less and  speechless  and  almost  dead.  Reviving  after  some  time, 
he  kissed  the  soil,  rejoicing,  yet  at  a  loss  what  course  to  take.  At 
a  short  distance  he  perceived  a  wood,  to  which  he  turned  his  steps. 
There  finding  a  covert  sheltered  by  intermingling  branches  alike 
from  the  sun  and  the  rain,  he  collected  a  pile  of  leaves  and  formed 
a  bed,  on  which  he  stretched  himself,  and,  heaping  the  leaves  over 
him,  fell  asleep. 

The  land  where  he  was  thrown  was  Scheria,  the  country  of  the 
Phaeacians. 1  These  people  dwelt  originally  near  the  Cyclopes  ; 
but,  being  oppressed  by  that  savage  race,  they  migrated  to  the  isle 
of  Scheria  under  the  conduct  of  Nausithoiis,  their  king.  They  were, 
the  poet  tells  us,  a  people  akin  to  the  gods,  who  appeared  mani- 
festly and  feasted  among  them  when  they  offered  sacrifices,  and 
did  not  conceal  themselves  from  solitary  wayfarers  when  they  met 
them.  They  had  abundance  of  wealth  and  lived  in  the  enjoyment 
of  it  undisturbed  by  the  alarms  of  war ;  for  as  they  dwelt  remote 
from  gain-seeking  man,  no  enemy  ever  approached  their  shores, 
and  they  did  not  even  require  to  make  use  of  bows  and  quivers. 
Their  chief  employment  was  navigation.  Their  ships,  which  went 
with  the  velocity  of  birds,  were  endued  with  intelligence ;  they 
knew  every  port  and  needed  no  pilot.  Aicinous,  the  son  of  Nau- 
sithoiis, was  now  their  king,  a  wise  and  just  sovereign,  beloved  by 
his  people. 

Now  it  happened  that  the  very  night  on  which  Ulysses  was  cast 
ashore  on  the  Phaeacian  island,  and  while  he  lay  sleeping  on  his 
bed  of  leaves,  Nausicaa,  the  daughter, of  the  king,  had  a  dream 
sent  by  Minerva,  reminding  her  that  her  wedding  day  might  not 
be  far  distant,  and  that  it  would  be  but  a  prudent  preparation  for 
that  event  to  have  a  general  washing  of  the  clothes  of  the  family. 

1  Odyssey,  6. 


THE  WANDERINGS  OF  ULYSSES  333 

This  was  no  slight  affair,  for  the  fountains  were  at  some  distance 
and  the  garments  must  be  carried  thither.  On  awaking,  the  prin- 
cess hastened  to  her  parents  to  tell  them  what  was  on  her  mind,  — 
not  alluding  to  her  wedding  day,  but  finding  other  reasons  equally 
good.  Her  father  readily  assented  and  ordered  the  grooms  to 
furnish  forth  a  wagon  for  the  purpose.  The  clothes  were  put 
therein,  and  the  cjueen,  her  mother,  placed  in  the  wagon  likewise 
an  abundant  supply  of  food  and  wine.  The  princess  took  her  seat 
and  plied  the  lash,  her  attendant  virgins  following  her  on  foot. 
Arrived  at  the  riverside  they  turned  out  the  mules  to  graze,  and 
unlading  the  carriage,  bore  the  garments  down  to  the  water,  and, 
working  with  cheerfulness  and  alacrity,  soon  dispatched  their  labor. 
Then  having  spread  the  garments  on  the  shore  to  dry,  and  having 
themselves  bathed,  they  sat  down  to  enjoy  their  meal ;  after  which 
they  rose  and  amused  themselves  with  a  game  of  ball,  the  prin- 
cess singing  to  them  while  they  played,  l^ut  when  they  had 
refolded  the  apparel  and  were  about  to  resume  their  way  to  the 
town,  Minerva  caused  the  ball  thrown  by  the  princess  to  fall  into 
the  water,  whereat  they  all  screamed,  and  Ulysses  awaked  at  the 
sound. 

Utterly  destitute  of  clothing,  he  discovered  that  only  a  few  bushes 
were  interposed  between  him  and  a  group  of  young  maidens,  whom, 
by  their  deportment  and  attire,  he  discovered  to  be  not  mere  peas- 
ant girls,  but  of  a  higher  class.  Breaking  off  a  leafy  branch  from 
a  tree,  he  held  it  before  him  and  stepped  out  from  the  thicket.  The 
virgins  at  sight  of  him  fled  in  all  directions,  Nausicaa  alone  ex- 
cepted, for  her  Minerva  aided  and  endowed  with  courage  and  dis- 
cernment. Ulysses,  standing  respectfully  aloof,  told  his  sad  case, 
and  besought  the  fair  object  (whether  queen  or  goddess  he  pro- 
fessed he  knew  not)  for  food  and  clothing.  The  princess  replied 
courteously,  promising  present  relief  and  her  father's  hospitality 
when  he  should  become  acquainted  with  the  facts.  She  called  back 
her  scattered  maidens,  chicling  their  alarm  and  reminding  them 
that  the  Phaeacians  had  no  enemies  to  fear.  This  man,  she  told 
them,  was  an  unhappy  wanderer,  whom  it  was  a  duty  to  cherish, 
for  the  poor  and  the  stranger  are  from  Jove.  She  bade  them  bring 
food,  and  the  garments  of  some  of  her  brothers  that  were  among 


334  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

the  contents  of  the  wagon.  When  this  was  done,  and  Ulysses  re- 
tiring to  a  sheltered  place  had  washed  his  body  free  from  the  sea- 
foam,  and  clothed  himself,  and  eaten,  Pallas  dilated  his  form  and 
diffused  grace  over  his  ample  chest  and  manly  brows. 

The  princess,  seeing  him,  was  filled  with  admiration  and  scrupled 
not  to  say  to  her  damsels  that  she  wished  the  gods  would  send  her 
such  a  husband.  To  Ulysses  she  recommended  that  he  repair  to 
the  city,  following  herself  and  her  train  so  far  as  the  way  lay  through 
the  fields  ;  but  when  they  should  approach  the  city,  she  desired 
that  he  no  longer  be  seen  in  her  company,  for  she  feared  the  re- 
marks which  rude  and  vulgar  people  might  make  on  seeing  her 
return  accompanied  by  such  a  gallant  stranger.  To  avoid  this  she 
directed  him  to  stop  at  a  grove  adjoining  the  city,  in  which  were 
a  farm  and  garden  belonging  to  the  king.  After  allowing  time  for 
the  princess  and  her  companions  to  reach  the  city,  he  was  then  to 
pursue  his  way  thither,  and  should  be  easily  guided  by  any  he 
might  meet  to  the  royal  abode. 

Ulysses  obeyed  the  directions  and  in  due  time  proceeded  to 
the  city,  on  approaching  which  he  met  a  young  woman  bearing 
forth  a  pitcher  for  water.^  It  was  Minerva  who  had  assumed  that 
form.  Ulysses  accosted  her  and  desired  to  be  directed  to  the 
palace  of  Alcinoiis,  the  king.  The  maiden  replied  respectfully, 
offering  to  be  his  guide ;  for  the  palace,  she  informed  him,  stood 
near  her  father's  dwelling.  Under  the  guidance  of  the  goddess 
and,  by  her  power,  enveloped  in  a  cloud  which  shielded  him  from 
obser\'ation,  Ulysses  passed  among  the  busy  crowd  and  with  won- 
der observed  their  harbor,  their  ships,  their  forum  (the  resort  of 
heroes),  and  their  battlements,  till  they  came  to  the  palace,  where 
the  goddess,  having  first  given  him  some  information  of  the  coun- 
try, king,  and  people  he  was  about  to  meet,  left  him.  Ulysses, 
before  entering  the  courtyard  of  the  palace,  stood  and  surveyed 
the  scene.  Its  splendor  astonished  him.  Brazen  walls  stretched 
from  the  entrance  to  the  interior  house,  of  which  the  doors  were 
gold,  the  doorposts  silver,  the  lintels  silver  ornamented  with  gold. 
On  either  side  were  figures  of  mastiffs  wrought  in  gold  and  silver, 
standing  in  rows  as  if  to  guard  the  approach.    Along  the  walls 

1  Odyssey,  7. 


.      THE  WANDERINGS  OF  ULYSSES  335 

were  seats  spread  through  all  their  length  with  mantles  of  finest 
texture,  the  work  of  Phaeacian  maidens.  On  these  seats  the  princes 
sat  and  feasted,  while  golden  statues  of  graceful  youths  held  in 
their  hands  lighted  torches  which  shed  radiance  over  the  scene. 
Full  fifty  female  menials  served  in  household  offices,  some  em- 
ployed to  grind  the  corn,  others  to  wind  off  the  purple  wool  or  ply 
the  loom.  For  the  Phasacian  women  as  far  exceeded  all  other 
women  in  household  arts  as  the  mariners  of  that  country  did  the 
rest  of  mankind  in  the  management  of  ships.  Without  the  court 
a  spacious  garden  lay,  four  acres  in  extent.  In  it  grew  many  a  lofty 
tree,  pomegranate,  pear,  apple,  fig,  and  olive.  Neither  winter's 
cold  nor  summer's  drought  arrested  their  growth. 

The  languid  sunset,  mother  of  roses, ^ 

Lingers,  a  light  on  the  magic  seas, 
The  wide  fire  flames,  as  a  flower  uncloses. 

Heavy  with  odor,  and  loose  to  the  breeze. 

The  red  rose  clouds,  without  law  or  leader, 

Gather  and  float  in  the  airy  plain  ; 
The  nightingale  sings  to  the  dewy  cedar, 

The  cedar  scatters  his  scent  to  the  main. 

The  strange  flowers'  perfume  turns  to  singing, 

Heard  afar  over  moonlit  seas  : 
The  Siren's  song,  grown  faint  in  winging, 

Falls  in  scent  on  the  cedar-trees. 

As  waifs  blown  out  of  the  sunset,  flying, 

Purple,  and  rosy,  and  gray,  the  birds 
Brighten  the  air  with  their  wings ;   their  crying 

Wakens  a  moment  the  weary  herds. 

Butterflies  flit  from  the  fairy  garden. 

Living  blossoms  of  flying  flowers  ; 
Never  the  nights  with  winter  harden. 

Nor  moons  wax  keen  in  this  land  of  ours. 

Great  fruits,  fragrant,  green  and  golden, 
Gleam  in  the  green,  and  droop  and  fall ; 

Blossom,  and  bud,  and  flower  unfolden, 
Swing  and  cling  to  the  garden  wall. 

1  Andrew  Lang,  A  Song  of  Phaeacia. 


336  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Deep  in  the  woods  as  twilight  darkeps, 

Glades  are  red  with  the  scented  fire ; 
Far  in  the  dells  the  white  maid  hearkens 

Song  and  sigh  of  the  heart's  desire. 

Ulysses  stood  gazing  in  admiration,  unobserved  himself,  for  the 
cloud  which  Minerva  spread  around  him  still  shielded  him.  At 
length  having  sufficiently  observed  the  scene,  he  advanced  with 
rapid  step  into  the  hall  where  the  chiefs  and  senators  were  assembled, 
pouring  libation  to  Mercury,  whose  worship  followed  the  evening 
meal.  Just  then  Minerva  dissolved  the  cloud  and  disclosed  him  to 
the  assembled  chiefs.  Advancing  to  the  place  where  the  queen  sat, 
he  knelt  at  her  feet  and  implored  her  favor  and  assistance  to  en- 
able him  to  return  to  his  native  country.  Then  withdrawing,  he 
seated  himself  in  the  mannej  of  suppliants,  at  the  hearth-side. 

For  a  time  none  spoke.  At  last  an  aged  statesman,  addressing 
the  king,  said,  "It  is  not  fit  that  a  stranger  who  asks  our  hospi- 
tality should  be  kept  waiting  in  suppliant  guise,  none  welcoming 
him.  Let  him,  therefore,  be  led  to  a  seat  among  us  and  supplied 
with  food  and  wine."  At  these  words  the  king,  rising,  gave  his 
hand  to  Ulysses  and  led  him  to  a  seat,  displacing  thence  his  own 
son  to  make  room  for  the  stranger.  Food  and  wine  were  set 
before  him  and  he  ate  and  refreshed  himself. 

The  king  then  dismissed  his  guests,  notifying  them  that  the 
next  day  he  would  call  them  to  council  to  consider  what  had  best 
be  done  for  the  stranger. 

When  the  guests  had  departed  and  Ulysses  was  left  alone  with 
the  king  and  queen,  the  queen  asked  him  who  he  was  and  whence 
he  came,  and  (recognizing  the  clothes  which  he  wore  as  those 
which  her  maidens  and  herself  had  made)  from  whom  he  received 
those  garments.  He  told  them  of  his  residence  in  Calypso's  isle 
and  his  departure  thence  ;  of  the  wreck  of  his  raft,  his  escape  by 
swimming,  and  of  the  relief  afforded  by  the  princess.  The  parents 
heard  approvingly,  and  the  king  promised  to  furnish  a  ship  in 
which  his  guest  might  return  to  his  own  land. 

The  next  day  the  assembled  chiefs  confirmed  the  promise  of 
the    king.i    A   bark  was  prepared  and  a   crew  of  stout   rowers 

1  Odyssey,  8. 


THE  WANDERINGS  OF  ULYSSES  337 

selected,  and  all  betook  themselves  to  the  palace,  where  a  bounteous 
repast  was  provided.  After  the  feast  the  king  proposed  that  the 
young  men  should  show  their  guest  their  proficiency  in  manly 
sports,  and  all  went  forth  to  the  arena  for  games  of  running, 
wrestling,  and  other  exercises.  After  all  had  done  their  best, 
Ulysses  being  challenged  to  show  what  he  could  do,  at  first  de- 
clined, but  being  taunted  by  one  of  the  youths,  seized  a  quoit  of 
weight  far  heavier  than  any  the  Phaeacians  had  thrown,  and  sent 
it  farther  than  the  utmost  throw  of  theirs.  All  were  astonished 
and  viewed  their  guest  with  greatly  increased  respect. 

After  the  games  they  returned  to  the  hall,  and  the  herald  led  in 
Demodocus,  the  blind  bard,  — 

Dear  to  the  Muse, 
Who  yet  appointed  him  both  good  and  ill, 
Took  from  him  sight,  but  gave  him  strains  divine. 

He  took  for  his  theme  the  Wooden  Horse,  by  means  of  which  the 
Greeks  found  entrance  into  Troy.  Apollo  inspired  him,  and  he 
sang  so  feelingly  the  terrors  and  the  exploits  of  that  eventful  time 
that  all  were  delighted,  but  Ulysses  was  moved  to  tears.  Observ- 
ing which,  Alcinoiis,  when  the  song  was  done,  demanded  of  him 
why  at  the  mention  of  Troy  his  sorrows  awaked.  Had  he  lost 
there  a  father,  or  brother,  or  any  dear  friend  ?  Ulysses  replied  by 
announcing  himself  by  his  true  name,  and,  at  their  request,  re- 
counted the  adventures  which  had  befallen  him  since  his  departure 
from  Troy.  This  narrative  raised  the  sympathy  and  admiration  of 
the  Phaeacians  for  their  guest  to  the  highest  pitch.  The  king  pro- 
posed that  all  the  chiefs  should  present  him  with  a  gift,  himself 
setting  the  example.  They  obeyed,  and  vied  with  one  another  in 
loading  the  illustrious  stranger  with  costly  gifts. 

The  next  day  Ulysses  set  sail  in  the  Phaeacian  vessel,  and  in  a 
short  time  arrived  safe  at  Ithaca,  his  own  island, ^  When  the  ves- 
sel touched  the  strand  he  was  asleep.  The  mariners,  without  wak- 
ing him,  carried  him  on  shore,  and  landed  with  him  the  chest 
containing  his  presents,  and  then  sailed  away. 

Neptune  was  so  displeased  at  the  conduct  of  the  Phaeacians  in 
thus  rescuing  Ulysses  from  his  hands,  that,  on  the  return  of  the 

1  Odyssey,  13. 


338  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

vessel  to  port,  he  transformed  it  into  a  rock,  right  opposite  the 
mouth  of  the  harbor. 

243.  Fate  of  the  Suitors.  Ulysses  had  now  been  away  from 
Ithaca  for  twenty  years,  and  when  he  awoke  he  did  not  recognize 
his  native  land  : 

"  Some  god  hath  cast  me  forth  upon  this  land, 
And  O  !  what  land  ?    So  thick  is  the  sea  mist, 
All  is  phantasmal.    What  king  ruletli  here? 
What  folk  inhabit  ?  —  cruel  unto  strangers, 
Or  hospitable.''    The  gods  have  lied  to  me 
When  they  foretold  I  should  see  Ithaca. 
This  is  some  swimming  and  Cimmerian  isle. 
With  melancholy  people  of  the  mist. 
Ah  !  Ithaca,  I  shall  not  see  thee  more  !  "  ^ 

But  Minerva,  appearing  in  the  form  of  a  young  shepherd,  informed 
him  where  he  was,  and  told  him  the  state  of  things  at  his  palace. 
More  than  a  hundred  nobles  of  Ithaca  and  of  the  neighboring 
islands  had  been  for  years  suing  for  the  hand  of  Penelope,  his 
wife,  imagining  him  dead,  and  lording  it  over  his  palace  and 
people  as  if  they  were  owners  of  both. 

Penelope  was  one  of  those  mythic  heroines  whose  beauties  were 
not  those  of  person  only,  but  of  character  and  conduct  as  well. 
She  was  the  niece  of  Tyndareus,  — -  being  the  daughter  of  his 
brother  Icarius,  a  Spartan  prince.  Ulysses,  seeking  her  in  mar- 
riage, had  won  her  over  all  competitors.  But,  when  the  moment 
came  for  the  bride  to  leave  her  father's  house,  Icarius,  unable  to 
bear  the  thoughts  of  parting  with  his  daughter,  tried  to  persuade 
her  to  remain  with  him  and  not  accompany  her  husband  to  Ithaca. 
Ulysses  gave  Penelope  her  choice,  to  stay  or  go  with  him.  Penelope 
made  no  reply,  but  dropped  her  veil  over  her  face.  Icarius  urged 
her  no  further,  but  when  she  was  gone  erected  a  statue  to  Modesty 
on  the  spot  where  they  had  parted. 

Ulysses  and  Penelope  had  not  enjoyed  their  union  more  than  a 
year  when  it  was  interrupted  by  the  events  which  called  Ulysses 
to  the  Trojan  War.  During  his  long  absence,  and  when  it  was 
doubtful  whether  he  still  lived,  and  highly  improbable  that  he 

1  Stephen  Phillips,  Ulysses. 


THE  WANDERINGS  OF  ULYSSES  339 

would  ever  return,  Penelope  was  importuned  by  numerous  suitors, 
from  whom  there  seemed  no  refuge  but  in  choosing  one  of  them 
for  her  husband.  She,  however,  employed  every  art  to  gain  time, 
still  hoping  for  Ulysses'  return.  One  of  her  arts  of  delay  was  by 
engaging  in  the  preparation  of  a  robe  for  the  funeral  canopy  of 
Laertes,  her  husband's  father.    She  pledged  herself  to  make  her 


Fig.  176.    Penelope  and  Telemachus 

choice  among  the  suitors  when  the  web  was  finished.  During  the 
day  she  worked  at  it,  but  in  the  night  she  undid  the  work  of  the  day. 

That  Ulysses  on  returning  might  be  able  to  take  vengeance 
upon  the  suitors,  it  was  important  that  he  should  not  be  recog- 
nized. Minerva  accordingly  metamorphosed  him  into  an  unsightly 
beggar,  and  as  such  he  was  kindly  received  by  Eumaeus,  the  swine- 
herd, a  faithful  servant  of  his  house. ^ 

Telemachus,  his  son,  had  for  some  time  been  absent  in  quest 
of  his  father,  visiting  the  courts  of   the    other   kings   who    had 

1  Odyssey,  14. 


340  THE  CLASSIC   MYTHS 

returned  from  the  Trojan  expedition.  While  on  the  search,  he 
received  counsel  from  Minerva  to  return  home.^  He  arrived 
at  this  juncture,  and  sought  Eumaeus  to  learn  something  of  the 
state  of  affairs  at  the  palace  before  presenting  himself  among 
the  suitors.  Finding  a  stranger  with  Eumaeus,  he  treated  him 
courteously,  though  in  the  garb  of  a  beggar,  and  promised  him 
assistance.  Eumaeus  was  sent  to  the  palace  to  inform  Penelope 
privately  of  her  son's  arrival,  for  caution  was  necessary  with  regard 
to  the  suitors,  who,  as  Telemachus  had  learned,  were  plotting  to 
intercept  and  kill  him.  When  the  swineherd  was  gone,  Minerv^a 
presented  herself  to  Ulysses  and  directed  him  to  make  himself 
known  to  his  son.  At  the  same  time  she  touched  him,  removed 
at  once  from  him  the  appearance  of  age  and  penury,  and  gave  him 
the  aspect  of  vigorous  manhood  that  belonged  to  him.  Telema- 
chus viewed  him  with  astonishment,  and  at  first  thought  he  must 
be  more  than  mortal.  But  Ulysses  announced  himself  as  his  father, 
and  accounted  for  the  change  of  appearance  by  explaining  that  it 
was  Minerva's  doing. 

Then  threw  Telemachus 

His  arms  around  his  father's  neck  and  wept. 

Desire  intense  of  lamentation  seized 

On  both  ;  soft  murmurs  uttering,  each  indulged 

His  grief.2 

The  father  and  son  took  counsel  together  how  they  should  get 
the  better  of  the  suitors  and  punish  them  for  their  outrages.  It 
was  arranged  that  Telemachus  should  proceed  to  the  palace  and 
mingle  with  the  suitors  as  formerly ;  that  Ulysses  should  also  go 
as  a  beggar,  a  character  which  in  the  rude  old  times  had  different 
privileges  from  what  we  concede  to  it  now.  As  traveler  and  stor)-- 
teller,  the  beggar  was  admitted  in  the  halls  of  chieftains  and  often 
treated  like  a  guest ;  though  sometimes,  also,  no  doubt,  with  con- 
tumely. Ulysses  charged  his  son  not  to  betray,  by  any  display  of 
unusual  interest  in  him,  that  he  knew  him  to  be  other  than  he 
seemed,  and  even  if  he  saw  him  insulted  or  beaten,  not  to  inter- 
pose otherwise  than  he  might  do  for  any  stranger.  At  the  palace 
they  found  the  usual  scene  of  feasting  and  riot  going  on.    The 

1  Odyssey,  15.  ^  Odyssey  16,  212  (Cowper's  translation). 


THE  WANDERINGS  OF  ULYSSES 


341 


suitors  pretended  to  receive  Telemachus  with  joy  at  his  return, 
though  secretly  mortified  at  the  failure  of  their  plots  to  take  his 
life.  The  old  beggar  was  permitted  to  enter  and  provided  with  a 
portion  from  the  table.  A  touching  incident  occurred  as  Ulysses 
entered  the  courtyard  of  the  palace.  An  old  dog  lay  in  the  yard 
almost  dead  with  age,  and  seeing  a  stranger  enter,  raised  his  head, 
with  ears  erect.  It  was  Argus,  Ulysses'  own  dog,  that  he  had  in 
other  days  often  led  to  the  chase. 

Soon  as  he  perceived 
Long-lost  Ulysses  nigh,  down  fell  his  ears 
Clapped  close,  and  with  his  tail  glad  sign  he  gave 
Of  gratulation,  impotent  to  rise. 
And  to  approach  his  master  as  of  old. 
Ulysses,  noting  him,  wiped  off  a  tear 
Unmarked. 

.   .   .   Then  his  destiny  released 
Old  Argus,  soon  as  he  had  lived  to  see 
Ulysses  in  the  twentieth  year  restored.^ 

As  Ulysses  sat  eating  his  portion  in  the  hall,  the  suitors  soon 
began  to  exhibit  their  insolence  to  him.  When  he  mildly  remon- 
strated, one  of  them 
raised  a  stool  and  with 
it  gave  him  a  blow. 
Telemachus  had  hard 
work  to  restrain  his  in- 
dignation at  seeing  his 
father  so  treated  in  his 
own  hall ;  but,  remem- 
bering his  father's  in- 
junctions, said  no  more 
than  what  became  him 
as  master  of  the  house, 
though  young,  and  pro- 
tector of  his  guests. 

Once  again   was  the  wanderer  all  but  betrayed  ;  —  when   his 
aged   nurse   Euryclea,   bathing  his   feet,  recognized  the   scar  of 

1  Odyssey,  17,  2mo  (Covvper's  translation). 


Fig.  177.    Ulysses  recognized  by  Euryclea 


342 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


a  wound  dealt  him  by  a  boar,  long  ago.^  Grief  and  joy  over- 
whelmed the  crone,  and  she  would  have  revealed  him  to  Penelope 
had  not  Ulysses  enjoined  silence  upon  her. 

Penelope  had  protracted  her  decision  in  favor  of  any  one  of  her 
suitors  so  long  that  there  seemed  to  be  no  further  pretense  for 
delay.  The  continued  absence  of  her  husband  seemed  to  prove 
that  his  return  was  no  longer  to  be  expected.  Meanwhile  her 
son  had  grown  up  and  was  able  to  manage  his  own  affairs.  She 
therefore  consented  to  submit  the  question  of  her  choice  to  a  trial 
of  skill  among  the  suitors.  The  test  selected  was  shooting  with  the 


Fig.  178.    Ulysses  kills  the  Suitors 
(Left  half) 

bow.2  Twelve  rings  were  arranged  in  a  line,  and  he  whose  arrow 
was  sent  through  the  whole  twelve  was  to  have  the  queen  for  his 
prize.  A  bow  that  one  of  his  brother  heroes  had  given  to  Ulysses 
in  former  times  was  brought  from  the  armory  and  with  its  quiver 
full  of  arrows  was  laid  in  the  hall.  Telemachus  had  taken  care  that 
all  other  weapons  should  be  removed,  under  pretense  that  in  the 
heat  of  competition  there  was  danger,  in  some  rash  moment,  of 
putting  them  to  an  improper  use. 

All  things  being  prepared  for  the  trial,  the  first  thing  to  be  done 
was  to  bend  the  bow  in  order  to  attach  the  string.  Telemachus 
endeavored  to  do  it,  but  found  all  his  efforts  fruitless  ;  and  mod- 
estly confessing  that  he  had  attempted  a  task  beyond  his  strength, 

1  Odyssey,  19.  2  Odyssey,  21. 


THE  WANDERINGS  OF  ULYSSES  343 

he  yielded  the  bow  to  another.  He  tried  it  with  no  better  success, 
and,  amidst  the  laughter  and  jeers  of  his  companions,  gave  it  up. 
Another  tried  it,  and  another  ;  they  rubbed  the  bow  with  tallow,  but 
all  to  no  purpose  ;  it  would  not  bend.  Then  spoke  Ulysses,  hum- 
bly suggesting  that  he  should  be  permitted  to  try ;  for,  ;said  he, 
"beggar  as  I  am,  I  was  once  a  soldier,  and  there  is  still  some 
strength  in  these  old  limbs  of  mine,"  The  suitors  hooted  with 
derision  and  commanded  to  turn  him  out  of  the  hall  for  his  inso- 
lence. But  Telemachus  spoke  up  for  him,  and,  merely  to  gratify 
the  old  man,  bade  him  try.    Ulysses  took  the  bow  and  handled  it 


Fig.  179.    Ulysses  kills  the  Suituks 
(Right  half) 

with  the  hand  of  a  master.  With  ease  he  adjusted  the  cord  to  its 
notch,  then  fitting  an  arrow  to  the  bow  he  drew  the  string  and 
sped  the  arrow  unerring  through  the  rings. 

Without  allowing  them  time  to  express  their  astonishment,  he 
said,  "Now  for  another  mark  !"  and  aimed  direct  at  Antinous,  the 
most  insolent  of  the  suitors.^  The  arrow  pierced  through  his  throat 
and  he  fell  dead.  Telemachus,  Eumseus,  and  another  faithful  fol- 
lower, well  armed,  now  sprang  to  the  side  of  Ulysses.  The  suitors, 
in  amazement,  looked  round  for  arms,  but  found  none,  neither 
was  there  any  way  of  escape,  for  Eumaeus  had  secured  the  door. 
Ulysses  left  them  not  long  in  uncertainty ;  he  announced  himself 
as   the   long-lost    chief,   whose  house  they    had    invaded,  whose 

1  Odyssey,  22. 


344  'I'HE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

substance  they  had  squandered,  whose  wife  and  son  they  had  perse- 
cuted for  ten  long  years ;  and  told  them  he  meant  to  have  ample 
vengeance.  All  but  two  were  slain,  and  Ulysses  was  left  master  of 
his  palace  and  possessor  of  his  kingdom  and  his  wife. 

244.  Tennyson's  Ulysses.  Tennyson's  poem  of  Ulysses  rep- 
resents the  old  hero,  —  his  dangers  past  and  nothing  left  but  to 
stay  at  home  and  be  happy,  —  growing  tired  of  inaction  and  re- 
solving to  set  forth  again  in  quest  of  new  adventures. 

It  little  profits  that  an  idle  king, 

By  this  still  hearth,  among  these  barren  crags, 

Match'd  with  an  ag^d  wife,  1  mete  and  dole 

Unequal  laws  unto  a  savage  race. 

That  hoard,  and  sleep,  and  feed,  and  know  not  me 

I  cannot  rest  from  travel :  I  will  drink 

Life  to  the  lees :  all  times  I  have  enjoy'd 

Greatly,  have  suffer'd  greatly,  both  with  those 

That  loved  me,  and  alone ;  on  shore,  and  when 

Thro'  scudding  drifts  the  rainy  Hyades 

Vext  the  dim  sea :  I  am  become  a  name ; 

For  always  roaming  with  a  hungry  heart 

Much  have  I  seen  and  known  :  cities  of  men , 

And  manners,  climates,  councils,  governments, 

Myself  not  least,  but  honor'd  of  them  all ; 

And  drunk  delight  of  battle  with  my  peers, 

Far  on  the  ringing  plains  of  windy  Troy. 

I  am  a  part  of  all  that  I  have  met ; 

Yet  all  experience  is  an  arch  wherethro' 

Gleams  that  untravel'd  world,  whose  margin  fades 

Forever  and  forever  when  I  move. 

How  dull  it  is  to  pause,  to  make  an  end. 

To  rust  unburnish'd,  not  to  shine  in  use ! 

As  tho'  to  breathe  were  life.    Life  piled  on  life 

Were  all  too  little,  and  of  one  to  me 

Little  remains :   but  every  hour  is  saved 

From  that  eternal  silence,  something  more, 

A  bringer  of  new  things ;  and  vile  it  were 

For  some  three  suns  to  store  and  hoard  myself, 

And  this  gray  spirit  yearning  in  desire 

To  follow  knowledge  like  a  sinking  star. 

Beyond  the  utmost  bound  of  human  thought. 


THE  WANDERINGS  OF  ULYSSES 


345 


This  is  my  son,  mine  own  Telemachus, 
To  whom  I  leave  the  scepter  and  the  isle  — 
•    Well-loved  of  me,  discerning  to  fulfil 

This  labor,  by  slow  prudence  to  make  mild 
A  rugged  people,  and  thro'  soft  degrees 
Subdue  them  to  the  useful  and  the  good. 

Most  blameless  is  he,  centered  in  the  sphere 

Of  common  duties,  decent  not  to  fail 

In  offices  of  tenderness,  and  pay  j.;;^ 

Meet  adoration  to  my  household  gods, 

When  I  am  gone.    He^works  his  work,  I  mine. 

There  lies  the  port :  the  vessel  puffs  her  sail : 

There  gloom  the  dark  broad  seas.    My  mariners, 

Souls  that  have  toil'd,  and  wrought,  and  thought 
with  me  — 

That  ever  with  a  frolic  welcome  took 

The  thunder  and  the  sunshine,  and  opposed 

Free  hearts,  free  foreheads  — -you  and  I  are  old ; 

Old  age  has  yet  his  honor  and  his  toil ; 

Death  closes  all :  but  something  ere  the  end, 

Some  work  of  noble  note,  may  yet  be  done. 

Not  unbecoming  men  that  strove  with  Gods. 

The  lights  begin  to  twinkle  from  the  rocks  : 

The  long  day  wanes :  the  slow  moon  climbs  : 
the  deep 

Moans  round  with  many  voices.    Come,  my 
friends, 

'T  is  not  too  late  to  seek  a  newer  world. 

Push  off,  and  sitting  well  in  order  smite 

The  sounding  furrows ;  for  my  purpose  holds 

To  sail  beyond  the  sunset,  and  the  baths 

Of  all  the  western  stars,  until  I  die. 

It  may  be  that  the  gulfs  will  wash  us  down : 

It  may  be  we  shall  touch  the  Happy  Isles, 

And  see  the  great  Achilles,  whom  we  knew. 

Tho'  much  is  taken,  much  abides ;  and  tho' 

We  are  not  now  that  strength  which  in  old  days 

Moved  earth  and  heaven,  that  which  we  are,  we  are; 

One  equal  temper  of  heroic  hearts. 

Made  weak  by  time  and  fate,  but  strong  in  will 

To  strive,  to  seek,  to  find,  and  not  to  yield. 


Fig.  i8o.   The  Niki 
Samothrack 


CHAPTER  XXV 
ADVENTURES  OF  ^NEAS 

Roman  Virgil,  thou  that  singest 

I  lion's  lofty  temples  robed  in  fire, 
Ilion  falling,  Rome  arising, 

wars,  and  filial  faith,  and  Dido's  pyre ; 

Landscape  lover,  lord  of  language  /  'Xr-^ 

more  than  he  that  sang  the  Works  and  Days,     . 

All  the  chosen  coin  of  fancy  A 

flashing  out  from  many  a  golden  phrase ;  .  .  .    J 

Light  among  the  vanish'd  ages ; 

star  that  gildest  yet  this  phantom  shore ; 
Golden  branch  amid  the  shadows, 

kings  and  realms  that  pass  to  rise  no  more  ;  .  .  . 

Now  the  Rome  of  slaves  hath  perish'd, 

and  the  Rome  of  freemen  holds  her  place, 

I,  from  out  the  Northern  Island    ' 

sunder'd  once  from  all  the  human  race,  -   ' 

I  salute  thee,  Mantovano, 

I  that  loved  thee  since  my  day  began, 
Wielder  of  the  stateliest  measure 

ever  molded  by  the  lips  of  man.^ 

245.  From  Troy  to  Italy.  Homer  tells  the  story  of  one  of  the 
Grecian  heroes,  Ulysses,  in  his  wanderings  on  his  return  home 
from  Troy.  Virgil  in  his  ^neid^  narrates  the  mythical  fortunes  of 
the  remnant  of  the  conquered  people  under  their  chief  ^neas, 
the  son  of  Venus  and  the  Trojan  Andiises,  in  their  search  for  a 

1  From  Tennyson's  To  Virgil. 

2  For  Virgil,  see  §  299 ;  for  translations  of  his  ^Eneid,  see  corresponding  section  in 
Commentary. 

346 


ADVENTURES  OF  ^NEAS 


347 


new  home  after  the  ruin  of  their  native  city.  On  that  fatal  night 
when  the  wooden  horse  disgorged  its  contents  of  armed  men,  and 
the  capture  and  conflagration  of  the  city  were  the  result,  yEneas 
made  his  escape  from  the  scene  of 
destruction,  with  his  father  and  his 
wife  and  young  son.  The  father, 
Anchises,  was  too  old  to  walk  with 
the  speed  required,  and  ^neas  took 
him  upon  his  shoulders.  Thus  bur- 
dened, leading  his  son  and  followed 
by  his  wife,  he  made  the  best  of  his 
way  out  of  the  burning  city ;  but  in 
the  confusion  his  wife,  Creiisa,  was 
swept  away  and  lost. 

246.  The  Departure  from  Troy. 
On  arriving  at  the  place  of  rendez- 
vous, numerous  fugitives  of  both 
sexes  were  found,  who  put  them- 
selves under  the  guidance  of  yEneas. 
Some  months  were  spent  in  prep- 
aration, and  at  length  they  embarked.  They  first  landed  on  the 
neighboring  shores  of  Thrace,  and  were  preparing  to  build  a  city, 
but  ^neas  was  deterred  by  a  prodigy.  Preparing  to  offer  sacrifice, 
he  tore  some  twigs  from  one  of  the  bushes.  To  his  dismay  the 
wounded  part  dropped  blood.  When  he  repeated  the  act,  a  voice 
from  the  ground  cried  out  to  him,  "  Spare  me,  yEneas ;  I  am  thy 
kinsman,  Polydore,  here  murdered  with  many  arrows,  from  which 
a  bush  has  grown,  nourished  with  my  blood."  These  words  recalled 
to  the  recollection  of  yEneas  that  Polydore  was  a  young  prince  of 
Troy,  whom  his  father  had  sent  with  ample  treasures  to  the  neigh- 
boring land  of  Thrace,  to  be  there  brought  up,  at  a  distance  from 
the  horrors  of  war.  The  king  to  whom  he  was  sent  had  murdered 
him  and  seized  his  treasures,  ^neas  and  his  companions,  consid- 
ering the  land  accursed  by  the  stain  of  such  a  crime,  hastened  away. 

247.  The  Promised  Empire.  They  next  landed  on  the  island  of 
Delos.  Here  yEneas  consulted  the  oracle  of  Apollo,  and  received 
an  answer,  ambiguous  as  usual,  — ""  Seek  thy  ancient  mother ; 


Fig.  i8i.    .'Eneas,  Anchises, 

AND    lULUS 


348  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

there  the  race  of  ALneas  shall  dwell,  and  reduce  all  other  nations 
to  their  sway."  The  Trojans  heard  with  joy  arid  immediately 
began  to  ask  one  another,  "  Where  is  the  spot  intended  by  the 
oracle  ?  "  Anchises  remembered  that  there  was  a  tradition  that 
their  forefathers  came  from  Crete,  and  thither  they  resolved  to 
steer.  They  arrived  at  Crete  and  began  to  build  their  city ;  but 
sickness  broke  out  among  them,  and  the  fields  that  they  had 
planted,  failed  to  yield  a  crop.  In  this  gloomy  aspect  of  affairs, 
^neas  was  warned  in  a  dream  to  leave  the  country  and  seek  a 
western  land  called  Hesperia,  whence  Dardanus,  the  true  founder 
of  the  Trojan  race,  was  reported  to  have  migrated.  To  Hesperia, 
now  called  Italy,  they  therefore  directed  their  future  course,  and 
not  till  after  many  adventures,  and  the  lapse  of  time  sufficient  to 
carry  a  modern  navigator  several  times  round  the  world,  did  they 
arrive  there. 

248.  The  Harpies.  Their  first  landing  was  at  the  island  of  the 
Harpies.  These  were  disgusting  birds,  with  the  heads  of  maidens, 
with  long  claws,  and  faces  pale  with  hunger.  They  were  sent  by 
the  gods  to  torment  a  certain  Phineus,  whom  Jupiter  had  deprived 
of  his  sight  in  punishment  of  his  cruelty ;  and  whenever  a  meal 
was  placed  before  him,  the  harpies  darted  down  from  the  air  and 
carried  it  off.  They  were  driven  away  from  Phineus  by  the  heroes 
of  the  Argonautic  expedition,  and  took  refuge  in  the  island  where 
^neas  now  found  them.  When  the  Trojans  entered  the  port  they 
saw  herds  of  cattle  roaming  over  the  plain.  They  slew  as  many  as 
they  wished,  and  prepared  for  a  feast.  But  no  sooner  had  they 
seated  themselves  at  the  table  than  a  horrible  clamor  was  heard 
in  the  air,  and  a  flock  of  these  odious  harpies  came  rushing  down 
upon  them,  seizing  in  their  talons  the  meat  from  the  dishes  and 
flying  away  with  it.  yEneas  and  his  companions  drew  their  swords 
and  dealt  vigorous  blows  among  the  monsters,  but  to  no  purpose, 
for  they  were  so  nimble  it  was  almost  impossible  to  hit  them,  and 
their  feathers  were,  like  armor,  impenetrable  to  steel.  One  of  them, 
perched  on  a  neighboring  cliff,  screamed  out,  "'  Is  it  thus,  Trojans, 
ye  treat  us  innocent  birds,  first  slaughter  our  cattle  and  then  make 
war  on  ourselves  ?  "  She  then  predicted  dire  sufferings  to  them 
in  their  future  course,  and,  having  vented  her  wrath,  flew  away. 


ADVENTURES  OF  ^NEAS 


349 


249.  Epirus.  The  Trojans  made  haste  to  leave  the  countr}',  and 
next  found  themselves  coasting  along  the  shore  of  Epirus.  Here 
they  landed  and  to  their  astonishment  learned  that  certain  Trojan 
exiles,  who  had  been  carried  there  as  prisoners,  had  become  rulers 
of  the  country.  Andromache,  the  widow  of  Hector,  had  borne 
three  sons  to  Neoptolemus  in  Epirus.  But  when  he  cast  her  off 
for  Hermione,  he  left  her  to  her  fellow-captive,  Helenus,  Hector's 
brother.  Now  that  Neoptolemus  was  dead  she  had  become  the 
wife  of  Helenus  ;  and  they  ruled  the  realm.  Helenus  and  Androm- 
ache treated  the  exiles  with  the  utmost  hospitality,  and  dismissed 
them  loaded  with  gifts. 

250.  The  Cyclopes  Again.  From  hence  /Eneas  coasted  along 
the  shore  of  Sicily  and  passed  the  country'  of  the  Cyclopes.  Here 
they  were  hailed  from  the  shore  by  a  miserable  object,  whom  by  his 
garments  tattered,  as  they  were, 
they  perceived  to  be  a  Greek. 
He  told  them  he  was  one  of 
Ulysses'  companions,  left  be- 
hind by  that  chief  in  his  hur- 
ried departure.  He  related  the 
story  of  Ulysses'  adventure  with 
Polyphemus,  and  besought  them 
to  take  him  off  with  them,  as 
he  had  no  means  of  sustaining 
his  existence  where  he  was,  but 
wild  berries  and  roots,  and  lived 
in  constant  fear  of  the  Cyclopes. 
While  he  spoke  Polyphemus 
made  his  appearance,  —  terrible,  shapeless,  vast,  and,  of  course, 
blind. 1  He  walked  with  cautious  steps,  feeling  his  way  with  a 
staff,  down  to  the  seaside,  to  wash  his  eye-socket  in  the  waves. 
When  he  reached  the  water  he  waded  out  towards  them,  and  his 
immense  height  enabled  him  to  advance  far  into  the  sea,  so  that 
the  Trojans  in  terror  took  to  their  oars  to  get  out  of  his  way. 
Hearing  the  oars,  Polyphemus  shouted  after  them  so  that  the 
shores  resounded,  and  at  the  noise  the  other  Cyclopes  came  forth 

1  Monsiritm  horrcndtim,  infonjie,  ingeits,  cui  honcn  adonptum.  —  /Kneid,  3,  658. 


\'''^(fciJvAft>£^ 


Fig.  i8j.    Scvli.a 


350 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


from  their  caves  and  woods,  and  lined  the  shore,  like  a  row  of 
lofty  pine  trees.  The  Trojans  plied  their  oars  and  soon  left  them 
out  of  sight. 

yEneas  had  been  cautioned  by  Helenus  to  avoid  the  strait  guarded 
by  the  monsters  Scylla  and  Charybdis.  There  Ulysses,  the  reader 
will  remember,  had  lost  six  of  his  men,  seized  by  Scylla  while  the 
navigators  were  wholly  intent  upon  avoiding  Charybdis.  ^neas, 
following  the  advice  of  Helenus,  shunned  the  dangerous  pass  and 
coasted  along  the  island  of  Sicily. 

251.  The  Resentment  of  Juno.  Now  Juno,  seeing  the  Trojans 
speeding  their  way  prosperously  towards  their  destined  shore,  felt 
her  old  grudge  against  them  revive,  for  she  could  not  forget  the 
slight  that  Paris  had  put  upon  her  in  awarding  the  prize  of  beauty 
to  another.  In  heavenly  minds  can  such  resentment  dwell !  ^ 
Accordingly  she  gave  orders  to  /Eolus,  who  sent  forth  his  sons, 
Boreas,  Typhon,  and  the  other  winds,  to  toss  the  ocean.  A  terrible 
storm  ensued,  and  the  Trojan  ships  were  driven  out  of  their  course 
towards  the  coast  of  Africa.  They  were  in  imminent  danger  of 
being  wrecked,  and  were  separated,  so  that  /Eneas  thought  that 
all  were  lost  except  his  own  vessel. 

At  this  crisis,  Neptune,  hearing  the  storm  raging,  and  knowing 
that  he  had  given  no  orders  for  one,  raised  his  head  above  the 
waves  and  saw  the  fleet  of  /Eneas  driving  before  the  gale.  Under- 
standing the  hostility  of  Juno,  he  was  at  no  loss  to  account  for  it, 
but  his  anger  was  not  the  less  at  this  interference  in  his  province. 
He  called  the  winds  and  dismissed  them  with  a  severe  reprimand. 
He  then  soothed  the  waves,  and  brushed  away  the  clouds  from 
before  the  face  of  the  sun.  Some  of  the  ships  which  had  got  on 
the  rocks  he  pried  off  with  his  own  trident,  while  Triton  and  a 
sea-nymph,  putting  their  shoulders  under  others,  set  them  afloat 
again.  The  Trojans,  when  the  sea  became  calm,  sought  the  near- 
est shore,  —  the  coast  of  Carthage,  where  /Eneas  was  so  happy  as 
to  find  that  one  by  one  the  ships  all  arrived  safe,  though  badly 
shaken. 

252.  The  Sojourn  at  Carthage.  Dido.  Carthage,  where  the 
exiles  had  now  arrived,  was  a  spot  on  the  coast  of  Africa  opposite 

1  Tantaetie  animis  coelestibus  irae?  —  ^neid,  i,  ii. 


ADVENTURES  OF  ^NEAS  35 1 

Sicily,  where  at  that  time  a  Tyrian  colony  under  Dido,  their  queen, 
were  laying  the  foundations  of  a  state  destined  in  later  ages  to  be 
the  rival  of  Rome  itself.  Dido  was  the  daughter  of  Belus,  king  of 
Tyre,  and  sister  of  Pygmalion,  who  succeeded  his  father  on  the 
tHrone.  Her  husband  was  Sichaeus,  a  man  of  immense  wealth, 
but  Pygmalion,  who  coveted  his  treasures,  caused  him  to  be  put  to 
death.  Dido,  with  a  numerous  body  of  friends  and  followers,  both 
men  and  women,  succeeded  in  effecting  their  escape  from  Tyre,  in 
several  vessels,  carrying  with  them  the  treasures  of  Sichaeus.  On 
arriving  at  the  spot  which  they  selected  as  the  seat  of  their  future 
home,  they  asked  of  the  natives  only  so  much  land  as  they  could 
inclose  with  a  bull's  hide.  When  this  was  readily  granted,  the 
queen  caused  the  hide  to  be  cut  into  strips,  and  with  them  in- 
closed a  spot  on  which  she  built  a  citadel,  and  called  it  Byrsa 
(a  hide).  Around  this  fort  the  city  of  Carthage  rose,  and  soon 
became  a  powerful  and  flourishing  place. 

Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  when  ^neas  with  his  Trojans  ar- 
rived there.  Dido  received  the  illustrious  exiles  with  friendliness 
and  hospitality.  "'  Not  unacquainted  with  distress,"  she  said,  "  I 
have  learned  to  succor  the  unfortunate."  ^  The  queen's  hospitality 
displayed  itself  in  festivities  at  which  games  of  strength  and  skill 
were  exhibited.  The  strangers  contended  for  the  palm  with  her 
own  subjects  on  equal  terms,  the  queen  declaring  that  whether 
the  victor  were  "  Trojan  or  Tyrian  should  make  no  difference  to 
her,"  2  At  the  feast  which  followed  the  games,  yEneas  gave  at  her 
request  a  recital  of  the  closing  events  of  the  Trojan  history  and  his 
own  adventures  after  the  fall  of  the  city.  Dido  was  charmed  with 
his  discourse  and  filled  with  admiration  of  his  exploits.  She  con- 
ceived an  ardent  passion  for  him,  and  he  for  his  part  seemed  well 
content  to  accept  the  fortunate  chance  which  appeared  to  offer 
him  at  once  a  happy  termination  of  his  wanderings,  a  home,  a 
kingdom,  and  a  bride.  Months  rolled  away  in  the  enjoyment  of 
pleasant  intercourse,  and  it  seemed  as  if  Italy  and  the  empire 
destined  to  be  founded  on  its  shores  were  alike  forgotten.  See- 
ing which,  Jupiter  dispatched  Mercury  with  a  message  to  ^Eneas 

1  Haud  ignara  mali,  miseris  succurrere  disco.  —  jEneid,  i,  630. 

2  Tros  Tyriusve  mihi  nulla  discrhnine  agetur. —  i5£neid   j,  574. 


352  THE  CLASSIC  MY'IHS 

recalling  him  to  a  sense  of  his  high  destiny,  and  commanding  him 
to  resume  his  voyage. 

^neas  parted  from  Dido,  though  she  tried  every  allurement  and 
persuasion  to  detain  him.  The  blow  to  her  affection  and  her  pride 
was  too  much  for  her  to  endure,  and  when  she  found  that  he  was 
gone,  she  mounted  a  funeral  pile  which  she  had  caused  to  be  pre- 
pared, and  having  stabbed  herself  was  consumed  with  the  pile. 
The  flames  rising  over  the  city  were  seen  by  the  departing  Tro- 
jans, and,  though  the  cause  was  unknown,  gave  to  ^neas  some 
intimation  of  the  fatal  event. 

253.  Palinurus.  Italy  at  Last.  After  touching  at  the  island 
of  Sicily,  where  Acestes,  a  prince  of  Trojan  lineage,  bore  sway, 
and  gave  them  a  hospitable  reception,  the  Trojans  reembarked 
and  held  on  their  course  for  Italy.  Venus  now  interceded  with 
Neptune  to  allow  her  son  at  last  to  attain  the  wished-for  goal  and 
find  an  end  of  his  perils  on  the  deep.  Neptune  consented,  stipu- 
lating only  for  one  life  as  a  ransom  for  the  rest.  The  victim  was 
Palinurus,  the  pilot.  As  he  sat  watching  the  stars  with  his  hand 
on  the  helm,  Somnus,  sent  by  Neptune,  approached  in  the  guise  of 
Phorbas,  and  said,  "  Palinurus,  the  breeze  is  fair,  the  water  smooth, 
and  the  ship  sails  steadily  on  her  course.  Lie  down  awhile  and 
take  needful  rest.  I  will  stand  at  the  helm  in  thy  place."  Palinurus 
replied,  "'  Tell  me  not  of  smooth  seas  or  favoring  winds,  —  me  who 
have  seen  so  much  of  their  treachery.  Shall  I  tmst  ^neas  to 
the  chances  of  the  weather  and  the  winds  ?  "  And  he  continued 
to  grasp  the  helm  and  to  keep  his  eyes  fixed  on  the  stars.  But 
Somnus  waved  over  him  a  branch  moistened  with  Lethaean  dew, 
and  his  eyes  closed  in  spite  of  all  his  efforts.  Then  Somnus  pushed 
him  overboard,  and  he  fell ;  but  as  he  kept  his  hold  upon  the  helm, 
it  came  away  with  him.  Neptune  was  mindful  of  his  promise,  and 
held  the  ship  on  her  track  without  helm  or  pilot  till  yEneas  dis- 
covered his  loss  and,  sorrowing  deeply  for  his  faithful  steersman, 
took  charge  of  the  ship  himself.  Under  his  guidance  the  ships 
at  last  reached  the  shores  of  Italy,  and  joyfully  the  adventurers 
leaped  to  land. 

254.  The  Sibyl  of  Cumae.  While  his  people  were  employed  in 
making  their  encampment,  ^neas  sought  the  abode  of  the  Sibyl. 


ADVENTURES  OF  ^NEAS 


353 


It  was  a  cave  connected  with  a  temple  and  grove,  sacred  to  Apollo 
and  Diana.  While  ^neas  contemplated  the  scene,  the  Sibyl  ac- 
costed him.  She  seemed  to  know  his  errand,  and,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  deity  of  the  place,  burst  forth  in  a  prophetic  strain, 
giving  dark  intimations  of  labors  and  perils  through  which  he  was 
destined  to  make  his  way  to  final  success.  She  closed  with  the  en- 
couraging words  which 


have  become  proverb- 
ial:  "Yield  not  to 
disasters,  but  press 
onward  the  more 
bravely."  ^  ^neas  re- 
plied that  he  had 
prepared  himself  for 
whatever  might  await 
him.  He  had  but  one 
request  to  make.  Hav- 
ing been  directed  in 
a  dream  to  seek  the 
abode  of  the  dead  in 
order  to  confer  with 
his  father  Anchises  to 
receive  from  him  a 
revelation  of  his  future 
fortunes  and  those  of 
his  race,  he  asked  her 
assistance  to  enable 
him  to  accomplish  the 
task.  The  Sibyl  re- 
plied :  "The  descent  to  Avernus  is  easy ;  the  gate  of  Pluto  stands 
open  night  and  day ;  but  to  retrace  one's  steps  and  return  to  the 
upper  air,  that  is  the  toil,  that  the  difficulty."  ^  She  instructed  him 
to  seek  in  the  forest  a  tree  on  which  grew  a  golden  branch.    This 

^  Tune  cede  mails,  sed  contra  aiidentior  Ho. — ^neid,  6,  95. 

3  Facilis  descensus  Avemo ;  ' 

Nodes  atque  dies  paiet  atrijanua  Ditis ; 

Sed  revocare  grad?im,  superasque  evadere  ad  auras, 

Hoc  opus,  hie  labor  est.  —  ^Eneid,  6,  126-129. 


Fig.  183.   The  Cum/ean  Sibyl 
From  the  painting  by  Michelangelo 


354  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

branch  was  to  be  plucked  off  and  borne  as  a  gift  to  Proserpine, 
and  if  fate  was  propitious,  it  would  yield  to  the  hand  and  quit  its 
parent  trunk,  but  otherwise  no  force  could  rend  it  away.  If  torn 
away,  another  would  succeed. 

^neas  followed  the  directions  of  the  Sibyl.  His  mother,  Venus, 
sent  two  of  her  doves  to  fly  before  him  and  show  him  the  way, 
and  by  their  assistance  he  found  the  tree,  plucked  the  branch, 
and  hastened  back  with  it  to  the  Sibyl. 

255.  The  Infernal  Regions.  The  region  where  Virgil  locates 
the  entrance  to  the  infernal  regions  is,  perhaps,  the  most  strikingly 
adapted  to  excite  ideas  of  the  terrific  and  preternatural  of  any  on 
the  face  of  the  earth.  It  is  the  volcanic  region  near  Vesuvius, 
where  the  whole  country  is  cleft  with  chasms  from  which  sulphur- 
ous flames  arise,  while  the  ground  is  shaken  with  pent-up  vapors, 
and  mysterious  sounds  issue  from  the  bowels  of  the  earth.  The 
lake  Avernus  is  supposed  to  fill  the  crater  of  an  extinct  volcano. 
It  is  circular,  half  a  mile  wide  and  very  deep,  surrounded  by  high 
banks,  which  in  Virgil's  time  were  covered  with  a  gloomy  forest. 
Mephitic  vapors  rise  from  its  waters,  so  that  no  life  is  found  on 
its  banks,  and  no  birds  fly  over  it.  Here  /Eneas  offered  sacrifices 
to  the  infernal  deities,  Proserpine,  Hecate,  and  the  Furies.  Then 
a  roaring  was  heard  in  the  earth,  the  woods  on  the  hilltops  were 
shaken,  and  the  howling  of  dogs  announced  the  approach  of  the 
deities.  "  Now,"  said  the  Sibyl,  "  summon  thy  courage,  for  thou 
shalt  need  it."  She  descended  into  the  cave  of  Avernus,  and 
^neas  followed.  Before  the  threshold  of  hell  they  passed  through 
a  group  of  beings  who  are  enumerated  as  Griefs  and  avenging 
Cares,  pale  Diseases,  and  melancholy  Age,  Fear  and  Hunger  that 
tempt  to  crime.  Toil,  Poverty,  and  Death,  —  forms  horrible  to  view. 
The  Furies  spread  their  couches  there,  and  Discord,  whose  hair 
was  of  vipers  tied  up  with  a  bloody  fillet.  Here  also  were  the 
monsters,  Briareus,  with  his  hundred  arms.  Hydras  hissing,  and 
Chimaeras  breathing  fire.  yEneas  shuddered  at  the  sight,  drew  his 
sword  and  would  have  struck,  but  the  Sibyl  restrained  him.  They 
then  came  to  the  black  river  Cocytus,  where  they  found  the  ferry- 
man Charon,  old  and  squalid,  but  strong  and  vigorous,  who  was 
receiving  passengers  of  all  kinds  into  his  boat,  stout-hearted  heroes, 


ADVENTURES  OF  ^NEAS  355 

boys  and  unmarried  girls,  as  numerous  as  the  leaves  that  fall  at 
autumn  or  the  flocks  that  fly  southward  at  the  approach  of  winter. 
They  stood  pressing  for  a  passage  and  longing  to  touch  the  oppo- 
site shore.  But  the  stern  ferryman  took  in  only  such  as  he  chose, 
driving  the  rest  back,  ^neas,  wondering  at  the  sight,  asked  the 
Sibyl,  '"  Why  this  discrimination  ?  "  She  answered,  "  Those  who 
are  taken  on  board  the  bark  are  the  souls  of  those  who  have  re- 
ceived due  burial  rites  ;  the  host  of  others  who  have  remained  un- 
buried  are  not  permitted  to  pass  the  flood,  but  wander  a  hundred 
years,  and  flit  to  and  fro  about  the  shore,  till  at  last  they  are  taken 
over."  ^neas  grieved  at  recollecting  some  of  his  own  compan- 
ions who  had  perished  in  the  storm.  At  that  moment  he  beheld 
Palinurus^is  pilot,  who  fell  overboard  and  was  drowned.  He  ad- 
dressed him  and~asked  him  the  cause  of  his  misfortune.  Palinurus 
replied  that  the  rudder  was  carried  away,  and  he,  clinging  to  it,  was 
swept  away  with  it.  He  besought  /Eneas  most  urgently  to  extend 
to  him  his  hand  and  take  him  in  company  to  the  opposite  shore. 
The  Sibyl  rebuked  him  for  the  wish  thus  to  transgress  the  laws 
of  Pluto,  but  consoled  him  by  informing  him  that  the  people  of 
the  shore  where  his  body  had  been  wafted  by  the  waves  should 
be  stirred  up  by  prodigies  to  give  it  due  burial,  and  that  the  prom- 
ontory should  bear  the  name  of  Cape  Palinurus,  —  and  so  it  does 
to  this  day.  Leaving  Palinurus  consoled  by  these  words,  they  ap- 
proached the  boat.  Charon,  fixing  his  eyes  sternly  upon  the  ad- 
vancing warrior,  demanded  by  what  right  he,  living  and  armed, 
approached  that  shore.  To  which  the  Sibyl  replied  that  they  would 
commit  no  violence,  that  /Eneas'  only  object  was  to  see  his  father, 
and  finally  exhibited  the  golden  branch,  at  sight  of  which  Charon's 
wrath  relaxed,  and  he  made  haste  to  turn  his  bark  to  the  shore 
and  receive  them  on  board.  The  boat,  adapted  only  to  the  light 
freight  of  bodiless  spirits,  groaned  under  the  weight  of  the  hero. 
They  were  soon  conveyed  to  the  opposite  shore.  There  they  were 
encountered  by  the  three-headed  dog  Cerberus,  with  his  necks 
'bristling  with  snakes.  He  barked  with  all  three  throats  till  the 
Sibyl  threw  him  a  medicated  cake,  which  he  eagerly  devoured,  and 
then  stretched  himself  out  in  his  den  and  fell  asleep.  vEneas  and 
the  Sibyl  sprang  to  land.    The  first  sound  that  struck  their  ears 


356  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

was  the  wailing  of  young  children  who  had  died  on  the  threshold 
of  life  ;  and  near  to  these  were  those  who  had  perished  under  false 
charges.  Minos  presides  over  them  as  judge  and  examines  the 
deeds  of  each.  The  next  class  was  of  those  who  had  died  by  their 
own  hand,  hating  life  and  seeking  refuge  in  death.  How  will- 
ingly would  they  now  endure  poverty,  labor,  and  any  other  infliction 
if  they  might  but  return  to  life!  Next  were  situated  the  regions 
of  sadness,  divided  off  into  retired  paths,  leading  through  groves 
of  myrtle.  Here  roamed  those  who  had  fallen  victims  to  unrequited 
love,  not  freed  from  pain  even  by  death  itself.  Among  these 
/Eneas  thought  he  descried  the  form  of  Dido,  with  a  wound  still 
recent.  In  the  dim.  light  he  was  for  a  moment  uncertain,  but 
approaching,  perceived  it  was  indeed  she.  Tears  fell  from  his 
eyes,  and  he  addressed  her  in  the  accents  of  love.  "  Unhappy 
Dido !  was  then  the  rumor  true  that  thou  hadst  perished .?  And 
was  I,  alas !  the  cause  .?  I  call  the  gods  to  witness  that  my  depar- 
ture from  thee  was  reluctant  and  in  obedience  to  the  commands 
of  Jove  ;  nor  could  I  believe  that  my  absence  would  have  cost  thee 
so  dear.  Stop,  I  beseech  thee,  and  refuse  me  not  a  last  farewell." 
She  stood  for  a  moment  with  averted  countenance  and  eyes  fixed 
on  the  ground,  and  then  silently  passed  on,  as  insensible  to  his 
pleadings  as  a  rock.  /Eneas  followed  for  some  distance,  then 
with  a  heavy  heart  rejoined  his  companion  and  resumed  his  route. 

They  next  entered  the  fields  where  roam  the  heroes  who  have 
fallen  in  battle.  Here  they  saw  many  shades  of  Grecian  and  Tro- 
jan warriors.  The  Trojans  thronged  around  him  and  could  not 
be  satisfied  with  the  sight.  They  asked  the  cause  of  his  coming 
and  plied  him  with  innumerable  questions.  But  the  Greeks,  at  the 
sight  of  his  armor  glittering  through  the  murky  atmosphere,  rec- 
ognized the  hero,  and,  filled  with  terror,  turned  their  backs  and  fled, 
as  they  used  to  do  on  the  plains  of  Troy. 

/Eneas  would  have  lingered  long  with  his  Trojan  friends,  but 
the  Sibyl  hurried  him  away.  They  next  came  to  a  place  where  the 
road  divided,  the  one  way  leading  to  Elysium,  the  other  to  the 
regions  of  the  condemned.  /Eneas  beheld  on  one  side  the  walls 
of  a  mighty  city,  around  which  Phlegethon  rolled  its  fiery  waters. 
Before  him  was  the  gate  of  adamant  that  neither  gods  nor  men 


ADVENTURES  OF  .'ENEAS  357 

can  break  through.  An  iron  tower  stood  by  the  gate,  on  which 
Tisiphone,  the  avenging  Fury,  kept  guard.  From  the  city  were 
heard  groans,  and  the  sound  of  the  scourge,  the  creaking  of  iron, 
and  the  clanking  of  chains,  /Eneas,  horror-stricken,  inquired  of 
his  guide  what  crimes  were  those  whose  punishments  produced 
the  sounds  he  heard.  The  Sibyl  answered,  "Here  is  the  judgment 
hall  of  Rhadamanthus,  who  brings  to  light  crimes  done  in  life 
which  the  perpetrator  vainly  thought  impenetrably  hid.  Tisiphone 
applies  her  whip  of  scorpions  and  delivers  the  offender  over  to 
her  sister  Furies."  At  this  moment  with  horrid  clang  the  brazen 
gates  unfolded,  and  within,  yEneas  saw  a  Hydra  with  fifty  heads 
guarding  the  entrance.  The  Sibyl  told  him  that  the  gulf  of  Tar- 
tarus descended  deep,  so  that  its  recesses  were  as  far  beneath  their 
feet  as  heaven  was  high  above  their  heads.  In  the  bottom  of  this 
pit  the  Titan  race,  who  warred  against  the  gods,  lie  prostrate ; 
Salmoneus  also,  who  presumed  to  vie  with  Jupiter,  and  built  a 
bridge  of  brass  over  which  he  drove  his  chariot  that  the  sound 
might  resemble  thunder,  launching  flaming  brands  at  his  people 
in  imitation  of  lightning,  till  Jupiter  struck  him  with  a  real  thunder- 
bolt and  taught  him  the  difference  between  mortal  weapons  and 
divine.  Here  also  is  Tityus,  the  giant,  whose  form  is  so  immense 
that,  as  he  lies,  he  stretches  over  nine  acres,  while  a  vulture  preys 
upon  his  liver,  which  as  fast  as  it  is  devoured  grows  again,  so  that 
his  punishment  will  have  no  end. 

vEneas  saw  groups  seated  at  tables  loaded  with  dainties,  while 
near  by  stood  a  Fury  who  snatched  away  the  viands  from  their  lips 
as  fast  as  they  prepared  to  taste  them.  Others  beheld  suspended 
over  their  heads  huge  rocks,  threatening  to  fall,  keeping  them  in 
a  state  of  constant  alarm.  These  were  they  who  had  hated  their 
brothers,  or  struck  their  parents,  or  defrauded  the  friends  who 
trusted  them,  or  who,  having  grown  rich,  kept  their  money  to 
themselves  and  gave  no  share  to  others,  —  the  last  being  the  most 
numerous  class.  Here  also  were  those  who  had  violated  the  mar- 
riage vow,  or  fought  in  a  bad  cause,  or  failed  in  fidelity  to  thei»* 
employers.  Here  was  one  who  had  sold  his  country  for  gold, 
another  who  perverted  the  laws,  making  them  say  one  thing  to-day 
and  another  to-morrow. 


358  i'HE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Ixion  was  there,  fastened  to  the  circumference  of  a  wheel  cease- 
lessly revolving  ;  and  Sisyphus,  whose  task  was  to  roll  a  huge  stone 
up  to  a  hilltop  ;  but  when  the  steep  was  well-nigh  gained,  the  rock, 
repulsed  by  some  sudden  force,  rushed  again  headlong  down  to 
the  plain.  Again  he  toiled  at  it,  while  the  sweat  bathed  all  his 
weary  limbs,  but  all  to  no  effect.  There  was  Tantalus,  who  stood 
in  a  pool  his  chin  level  with  the  water,  yet  he  was  parched  with 


Fig.  184.    Ixion  on  the  Wheel 


ihirst  and  found  nothing  to  assuage  it ;  for  when  he  bowed  his 
hoary  head,  eager  to  quaff,  the  water  fled  away,  leaving  the  ground 
at  his  feet  all  dry.  Tall  trees,  laden  with  fruit,  stooped  their  heads 
to  him,  —  pears,  pomegranates,  apples,  and  luscious  figs  ;  but  when, 
with  a  sudden  grasp,  he  tried  to  seize  them,  winds  whirled  them 
high  above  his  reach. 

256.  The  Elysian  Fields.  The  Sibyl  now  warned  ^neas  that 
it  was  time  to  turn  from  these  melancholy  regions  and  seek  the 
city  of  the  blessed.  They  passed  through  a  middle  tract  of  dark- 
ness and  came  upon  the  Elysian  Fields,  the  groves  where  the  happy 


ADVENTURES  OF  ^NEAS  359 

reside.  They  breathed  a  freer  air  and  saw  all  objects  clothed  in  a 
purple  light.  The  region  had  a  sun  and  stars  of  its  own.  The 
inhabitants  were  enjoying  themselves  in  various  ways,  some  in 
sports  on  the  grassy  turf,  in  games  of  strength  or  skill,  others 
dancing  or  singing.  Orpheus  struck  the  chords  of  his  lyre  and 
called  forth  ravishing  sounds.  Here  yEneas  saw  the  founders  of 
the  Trojan  state,  great-hearted  heroes  who  lived  in  happier  times. 
He  gazed  with  admiration  on  the  war  chariots  and  glittering  arms 
now  reposing  in  disuse.  Spears  stood  fixed  in  the  ground,  and  the 
horses,  unharnessed,  roamed  over  the  plain.  The  same  pride  in 
splendid  armor  and  generous  steeds  which  the  old  heroes  felt  in 
life  accompanied  them  here.  He  saw  another  group  feasting  and 
listening  to  the  strains  of  music.  They  were  in  a  laurel  grove, 
whence  the  great  river  Po  has  its  origin  and  flows  out  among 
men.  Here  dwelt  those  who  fell  by  wounds  received  in  their 
country's  cause,  holy  priests  also,  and  poets  who  have  uttered 
thoughts  worthy  of  Apollo,  and  others  who  have  contributed  to 
cheer  and  adorn  life  by  their  discoveries  in  the  useful  arts,  and 
have  made  their  memory  blessed  by  rendering  service  to  mankind. 
They  wore  snow-white  fillets  about  their  brows.  The  Sibyl  ad- 
dressed a  group  of  these  and  inquired  where  Anchises  was  to  be 
found.  They  were  directed  where  to  seek  him,  and  soon  found 
him  in  a  verdant  valley,  where  he  was  contemplating  the  ranks 
of  his  posterity,  their  destinies  and  worthy  deeds  to  be  achieved 
in  coming  times.  When  he  recognized  ^neas  approaching,  he 
stretched  out  both  hands  to  him,  while  tears  flowed  freely.  "  Dost 
thou  come  at  last,"  said  he,  "  long  expected,  and  do  I  behold  thee 
after  such  perils  past  .-*  O  my  son,  how  have  I  trembled  for  thee, 
as  I  have  watched  thy  course !  "  To  which  ^neas  replied,  "  O 
father !  thy  image  was  always  before  me  to  guide  and  guard  me." 
Then  he  endeavored  to  infold  his  father  in  his  embrace,  but  his 
arms  inclosed  only  an  unsubstantial  shade. 

257.  The  Valley  of  Oblivion,  ^neas  perceived  before  him  a 
spacious  valley,  with  trees  gently  waving  to  the  wind,  a  tranquil 
landscape,  through  which  the  river  Lethe  flowed.  Along  the  banks 
of  the  stream  wandered  a  countless  multitude,  numerous  as  insects 
in  the  summer  air.  yEneas,  with  surprise,  inquired  who  were  these. 


36o  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Anchises  answered  :  "  They  are  souls  to  which  bodies  are  to  be 
given  in  due  time.  Meanwhile  they  dwell  on  Lethe's  bank  and 
drink  oblivion  of  their  former  lives."  "  O  father  !  "  said  /Eneas,  "is 
it  possible  that  any  can  be  so  in  love  with  life  as  to  wish  to  leave 
these  tranquil  seats  for  the  upper  world  ?  "  Anchises  replied  by 
explaining  the  plan  of  creation.  The  Creator,  he  told  him,  origi- 
nally made  the  material  of  which  souls  are  composed,  of  the  four 
elements,  fire,  air,  earth,  and  water,  all  which  when  united  took 
the  form  of  the  most  excellent  part,  fire,  and  heca.me  J?arnc.  This 
material  was  scattered  like  seed  among  the  heavenly  bodies,  the 
sun,  moon,  and  stars.  Of  this  seed  the  inferior  gods  created  man 
and  all  other  animals,  mingling  it  with  various  proportions  of  earth, 
by  which  its  purity  was  alloyed  and  reduced.  Thus  the  more  earth 
predominates  in  the  composition,  the  less  pure  is  the  individual ; 
and  we  sec  that  men  and  women  with  their  full-grown  bodies  have 
not  the  purity  of  childhood.  So  in  proportion  to  the  time  which 
the  union  of  body  and  soul  has  lasted,  is  the  impurity  contracted 
by  the  spiritual  part.  This  impurity  must  be  purged  away  after 
death,  which  is  done  by  ventilating  the  souls  in  the  current  of 
winds,  or  merging  them  in  water,  or  burning  out  their  impurities 
by  fire.  Some  few,  of  whom  Anchises  intimates  that  he  is  one, 
are  admitted  at  once  to  Elysium,  there  to  remain.  But  the  rest, 
after  the  impurities  of  earth  are  purged  away,  are  sent  back  to  life 
endowed  with  new  bodies,  having  had  the  remembrance  of  their 
former  lives  effectually  washed  away  by  the  waters  of  Lethe.  Some 
souls,  however,  there  still  are,  so  thoroughly  corrupted  that  they 
are  not  fit  to  be  intrusted  with  human  bodies,  and  these  pass  by 
metempsychosis  into  the  bodies  of  brute  animals. 

Anchises,  having  explained  so  much,  proceeded  to  point  out  to 
^neas  individuals  of  his  race  who  were  hereafter  to  be  born,  and 
to  relate  to  him  the  exploits  they  should  perform  in  the  world. 
After  this  he  reverted  to  the  present,  and  told  his  son  of  the 
events  that  remained  to  him  to  be  accomplished  before  the  com- 
plete establishment  of  himself  and  his  followers  in  Italy.  Wars 
were  to  be  waged,  battles  fought,  a  bride  to  be  won,  and,  in  the 
result,  a  Trojan  state  founded,  from  which  should  rise  the  Roman 
power,  to  be  in  time  the  sovereign  of  the  world. 


ADVENTURES  OF  ^NEAS  361 

As  ^neas  and  the  Sibyl  pursued  their  way  back  to  earth,  he 
said  to  her:  "Whether  thou  be  a  goddess  or  a  mortal  beloved  by 
the  gods,  by  me  thou  shalt  always  be  held  in  reverence.  When  I 
reach  the  upper  air,  I  will  cause  a  temple  to  be  built  to  thy  honor, 
and  will  myself  bring  offerings."  "  I  am  no  goddess,"  said  the 
Sibyl ;  "  I  have  no  claims  to  sacrifice  or  offering.  I  am  mortal, 
yet,  could  I  but  have  accepted  the  love  of  Apollo,  I  might  have 
been  immortal.  He  promised  me  the  fulfillment  of  my  wish,  if  I 
would  consent  to  be  his,  I  took  a  handful  of  sand  and,  holding  it 
forth,  said,  "  Grant  me  to  see  as  many  birthdays  as  there  are  sand- 
grains  in  my  hand.'  Unluckily  I  forgot  to  ask  for  enduring  youth. 
This  also  he  would  have  granted  could  I  have  accepted  his  love, 
but,  offended  at  my  refusal,  he  allowed  me  to  grow  old.  My  youth 
and  youthful  strength  fled  long  ago.  I  have  lived  seven  hundred 
years,  and  to  equal  the  number  of  the  sand-grains  I  have  still  to 
see  three  hundred  springs  and  three  hundred  harvests.  My  body 
shrinks  up  as  years  increase,  and  in  time  I  shall  be  lost  to  sight, 
but  my  voice  will  remain,  and  future  ages  will  respect  my  sa3angs." 

These  concluding  words  of  the  Sibyl  alluded  to  her  prophetic 
power.  In  her  cave  she  was  accustomed  to  inscribe  on  leaves 
gathered  from  the  trees  the  names  and  fates  of  individuals.  The 
leaves  thus  inscribed  were  arranged  in  order  within  the  cave,  and 
might  be  consulted  by  her  votaries.  But  if,  perchance,  at  the 
opening  of  the  door  the  wind  rushed  in  and  dispersed  the  leaves, 
the  Sibyl  gave  no  aid  to  restoring  them  again,  and  the  oracle  was 
irreparably  lost. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

THE  WAR  BETWEEN  TROJANS  AND  LATINS 

258.  The  Fulfillment  of  Prophecy.  /Eneas,  having  parted  from 
the  Sibyl  and  rejoined  his  fleet,  coasted  along  the  shores  of  Italy 
and  east  anchor  in  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber.  The  poet,  having 
brought  his  hero  to  this  spot,  the  destined  termination  of  his  wan- 
derings, invokes  his  Muse  to  tell  him  the  situation  of  things  at 
that  eventful  moment.  Latinus,  third  in  descent  from  Saturn,  ruled 
the  country.  He  was  now  old  and  had  no  male  descendant,  but 
had  one  charming  daughter,  Lavinia,  who  was  sought  in  marriage 
by  many  neighboring  chiefs,  one  of  whom,  Turnus,  king  of  the 
Rutulians,  was  favored  by  the  wishes  of  her  parents.  But  Latinus 
had  been  warned  in  a  dream  by  his  father,  Faunus,  that  the  destined 
husband  of  Lavinia  should  come  from  a  foreign  land.  From  that 
union  should  spring  a  race  destined  to  subdue  the  world. 

Our  readers  will  remember  that  in  the  conflict  with  the  harpies, 
one  of  those  half-human  birds  had  threatened  the  Trojans  with 
dire  sufferings.  In  particular,  she  predicted  that  before  their  wan- 
derings ceased  they  should  be  pressed  by  hunger  to  devour  their 
tables.  This  portent  now  came  true  ;  for  as  they  took  their  scanty 
meal,  seated  on  the  grass,  the  men  placed  their  hard  biscuit  on 
their  laps  and  put  thereon  whatever  their  gleanings  in  the  woods 
supplied.  Having  dispatched  the  latter,  they  finished  by  eating  the 
crusts.  Seeing  which,  the  boy  lulus  said  playfully,  "  See !  we  are 
eating  our  tables."  /Eneas  caught  the  words  and  accepted  the 
omen.  "All  hail,  promised  land !"  he  exclaimed,  "this  is  our 
home,  this  our  country ! "  He  then  took  measures  to  find  out  who 
were  the  present  inhabitants  of  the  land  and  who  their  rulers.  A 
hundred  chosen  men  were  sent  to  the  village  of  Latinus,  bearing 
presents  and  a  request  for  friendship  and  alliance.  They  went  and 
were  favorably  received.    Latinus  immediately  concluded  that  the 

362 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  TROJANS  AND  LATINS       363 

Trojan  hero  was  no  other  than  the  promised  son-in-law  announced 
by  the  oracle.  He  cheerfully  granted  his  alliance,  and  sent  back 
the  messengers  mounted  on  steeds  from  his  stables  and  loaded 
with  gifts  and  friendly  messages. 

Juno,  seeing  things  go  thus  prosperously  for  the  Trojans,  felt 
her  old  animosity  revive,  summoned  Alecto  from  Erebus,  and  sent 
her  to  stir  up  discord.  The  Fury  first  took  possession  of  the  queen, 
Amata,  and  roused  her  to  oppose  in  every  way  the  new  alliance. 
Alecto  then  sped  to  the  city  of  Turnus  and,  assuming  the  form  of 
an  old  priestess,  informed  him  of  the  arrival  of  the  foreigners  and 
of  the  attempts  of  their  prince  to  rob  him  of  his  betrothed.  Next  she 
turned  her  attention  to  the  camp  of  the  Trojans.  There  she  saw 
the  boy  lulus  and  his  companions  amusing  themselves  with  hunt- 
ing. She  sharpened  the  scent  of  the  dogs  and  led  them  to  rouse 
up  from  the  thicket  a  tame  stag,  the  favorite  of  Silvia,  the  daugh- 
ter of  Tyrrheus,  the  king's  herdsman.  A  javelin  from  the  hand  of 
lulus  wounded  the  animal,  which  had  only  strength  left  to  run  home- 
ward and  die  at  its  mistress's  feet.  Her  cries  and  tears  roused  her 
brothers  and  the  herdsmen,  and  they,  seizing  whatever  weapons 
came  to  hand,  furiously  assaulted  the  hunting  party.  These  were 
protected  by  their  friends,  and  the  herdsmen  were  finally  driven 
back  with  the  loss  of  two  of  their  number. 

These  things  were  enough  to  rouse  the  storm  of  war,  and  the 
queen,  Turnus,  and  the  peasants  all  urged  the  old  king  to  drive 
the  strangers  from  the  country.  He  resisted  as  long  as  he  could, 
but,  finding  his  opposition  unavailing,  finally  gave  way  and  re- 
treated to  his  retirement. 

259.  The  Gates  of  Janus  Opened.  It  was  the  custom  of  the 
country,  when  war  was  to  be  undertaken,  for  the  chief  magistrate, 
clad  in  his  robes  of  office,  with  solemn  pomp  to  open  the  gates  of 
the  temple  of  Janus,  which  were  kept  shut  as  long  as  peace  en- 
dured. His  people  now  urged  the  old  king  to  perform  that  solemn 
office,  but  he  refused  to  do  so.  While  they  contested,  Juno  herself, 
descending  from  the  skies,  smote  the  doors  with  irresistible  force 
and  burst  them  open.  Immediately  the  whole  country  was  in  a 
flame.  The  people  rushed  from  every  side,  breathing  nothing 
but  war. 


364  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Turnus  was  recognized  by  all  as  leader ;  others  joined  as  allies, 
chief  of  whom  was  Mezentius,  a  brave  and  able  soldier,  but  of  de- 
testable cruelty.  He  had  been  the  chief  of  one  of  the  neighboring 
cities,  but  his  people  drove  him  out.  With  him  was  joined  his  son 
Lausus,  a  generous  youth  worthy  of  a  better  sire. 

260.  Camilla.  Camilla,  the  favorite  of  Diana,  a  huntress  and 
warrior  after  the  fashion  of  the  Amazons,  came  with  her  band  of 
mounted  followers,  including  a  select  number  of  her  own  sex,  and 
ranged  herself  on  the  side  of  Turnus.  This  maiden  had  never 
accustomed  her  fingers  to  the  distaff  or  the 
loom,  but  had  learned  to  endure  the  toils  of 
war  and  in  speed  to  outstrip  the  wind.  It 
seemed  as  if  she  might  run  over  the  stand- 
ing corn  without  crushing  it,  or  over  the  sur- 
face of  the  water  without  dipping  her  feet. 
Camilla's  history  had  been  singular  from  the 
beginning.  Her  father,  Metabus,  driven  from 
his  city  by  civil  discord,  carried  with  him  in 
his  flight  his  infant  daughter.  As  he  fled 
through  the  woods,  his  enemies  in  hot  pur- 
suit, he  reached  the  bank  of  the  river  Amase- 
nus,  which,  swelled  by  rains,  seemed  to  debar 
a  passage.  He  paused  for  a  moment,  then 
decided  what  to  do.  He  tied  the  infant  to  his 
lance  with  wrappers  of  bark,  and  poising  the 
w^eapon  in  his  upraised  hand,  thus  addressed 
Diana  :  "  Goddess  of  the  woods  !  I  consecrate  this  maid  to  thee  " ; 
then  hurled  the  weapon  with  its  burden  to  the  opposite  bank.  The 
spear  flew  across  the  roaring  water.  His  pursuers  were  already 
upon  him,  but  he  plunged  into  the  river,  and  swam  across,  and 
found  the  spear  with  the  infant  safe  on  the  other  side.  Thence- 
forth he  lived  among  the  shepherds  and  brought  up  his  daughter 
in  woodland  arts.  While  a  child  she  was  taught  to  use  the  bow 
and  throw  the  javelin.  With  her  sling  she  could  bring  down  the 
crane  or  the  wild  swan.  Her  dress  was  a  tiger's  skin.  Many 
mothers  sought  her  for  a  daughter-in-law,  but  she  continued  faith- 
ful to  Diana  and  repelled  the  thought  of  marriage. 


Fig.  185.    Amazon 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  TROJANS  AND  LATINS        365 

261.  Alliance  with  Evander.  Such  were  the  formidable  allies 
that  ranged  themselves  against  /Eneas.  It  was  night,  and  he  lay 
stretched  in  sleep  on  the  bank  of  the  river  under  the  open  heavens. 
The  god  of  the  stream,  Father  Tiber,  seemed  to  raise  his  head 
above  the  willows  and  to  say  :  "O  goddess-born,  destined  possessor 
of  the  Latin  realms,  this  is  the  promised  land;  here  is  to  be  thy 
home,  here  shall  terminate  the  hostility  of  the  heavenly  powers,  if 
only  thou  .faithfully  persevere.  There  are  friends  not  far  distant. 
Prepare  thy  boats  and  row  up  my  stream  ;  I  will  lead  thee  to  Evan- 
der, the  Arcadian  chief.  He  has  long  been  at  strife  with  Turnus 
and  the  Rutulians,  and  is  prepared  to  become  an  ally  of  thine. 
Rise  !  offer  thy  vows  to  Juno  and  deprecate  her  anger.  When  thou 
hast  achieved  thy  victory,  then  think  of  me."  ^neas  woke  and  paid 
immediate  obedience  to  the  friendly  vision.  He  sacrificed  to  Juno, 
and  invoked  the  god  of  the  river  and  all  his  tributary  fountains  to 
lend  their  aid.  Then  for  the  first  time  a  vessel  filled  with  armed 
warriors  floated  on  the  stream  of  the  Tiber.  The  river  smoothed 
its  waves  and  bade  its  current  flow  gently,  while,  impelled  by  the 
vigorous  strokes  of  the  rowers,  the  vessel  shot  rapidly  up  the  stream. 

About  the  middle  of  the  day  they  came  in  sight  of  the  scattered 
buildings  of  the  infant  town  where  in  after  times  the  proud  city  of 
Rome  grew,  whose  glory  reached  the  skies.  By  chance  the  old  king, 
Evander,  was  that  day  celebrating  annual  solemnities  in  honor  of 
Hercules  and  all  the  gods.  Pallas,  his  son,  and  all  the  chiefs  of 
the  little  commonwealth  stood  by.  When  they  saw  the  tall  ship 
gliding  onward  through  the  wood,  they  were  alarmed  at  the  sight 
and  rose  from  the  tables.  But  Pallas  forbade  the  solemnities  to  be 
interrupted  and,  seizing  a  weapon,  stepped  forward  to  the  river's 
bank.  He  called  aloud,  demanding  who  the  strangers  were  and 
what  their  object.  yEneas,  holding  forth  an  olive  branch,  replied: 
"  We  are  Trojans,  friends  to  you  and  enemies  to  the  Rutulians, 
We  seek  Evander  and  offer  to  join  our  arms  with  yours."  Pallas, 
in  amaze  at  the  sound  of  so  great  a  name,  invited  them  to  land, 
and  when  ^neas  touched  the  shore,  he  seized  his  hand  and  held 
it  long  in  friendly  grasp.  Proceeding  through  the  wood  they  joined 
the  king  and  his  party,  and  were  most  favorably  received.  Seats 
were  provided  for  them  at  the  tables,  and  the  repast  proceeded. 


366  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

262.  The  Site  of  Future  Rome.  When  the  solemnities  were 
ended,  all  moved  towards  the  city.  The  king,  bending  with  age, 
walked  between  his  son  and  ^neas,  taking  the  arm  of  one  or  the 
other  of  them,  and  with  much  variety  of  pleasing  talk  shortening 
the  way.  ^neas  with  delight  looked  and  listened,  observing  all 
the  beauties  of  the  scene  and  learning  much  of  heroes  renowned 
in  ancient  times.  Evander  said  :  '"  These  extensive  groves  were 
once  inhabited  by  fauns  and  nymphs,  and  a  rude  race  of  men  who 
sprang  from  the  trees  themselves  and  had  neither  laws  nor  social 
culture.  They  knew  not  how  to  yoke  the  cattle,  nor  raise  a  harvest, 
nor  provide  from  present  abundance  for  future  want,  but  browsed 
like  beasts  upon  the  leafy  boughs  or  fed  voraciously  on  their  hunted 
prey.  Such  were  they  when  Saturn,  expelled  from  Olympus  by 
his  sons,  came  among  them  and  drew  together  the  fierce  savages, 
formed  them  into  society,  and  gave  them  laws.  Such  peace  and 
plent}'  ensued  that  men  ever  since  have  called  his  reign  the  Golden 
Age ;  but  by  degrees  far  other  times  succeeded,  and  the  thirst  of 
gold  and  the  thirst  of  blood  prevailed.  The  land  was  a  prey  to  suc- 
cessive tyrants  till  fortune  and  resistless  destiny  brought  me  hither, 
an  exile  from  my  native  land,  Arcadia." 

Having  thus  said,  he  showed  him  the  Tarpeian  rock,  and  the 
rude  spot,  then  overgrown  with  bushes,  where  in  after  times  the 
Capitol  was  to  rise  in  all  its  magnificence.  He  next  pointed  to 
some  dismantled  walls  and  said,  "  Here  stood  Janiculum,  built  by 
Janus,  and  there  Saturnia,  the  town  of  Saturn."  Such  discourse 
brought  them  to  the  cottage  of  Evander,  whence  they  saw  the  low- 
ing herds  roaming  over  the  plain  where  soon  should  stand  the 
proud  and  stately  Forum.  They  entered,  and  a  couch,  well  stuffed 
with  leaves  and  covered  with  the  skin  of  a  Libyan  bear,  was  spread 
for  ^neas. 

Next  morning,  awakened  by  the  dawn  and  the  shrill  song  of  birds 
beneath  the  eaves  of  his  low  mansion,  old  Evander  rose.  Clad  in  a 
tunic,  and  a  panther's  skin  thrown  over  his  shoulders,  with  sandals 
on  his  feet  and  his  good  sword  girded  to  his  side,  he  went  forth  to 
seek  his  guest.  Two  mastiffs  followed  him,  —  his  whole  retinue  and 
bodyguard.  He  found  the  hero  attended  by  his  faithful  Achates, 
and  Pallas  soon  joining  them,  the  old  king  spoke  thus : 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  TROJANS  AND  LATINS        367 

"  Illustrious  Trojan,  it  is  but  little  we  can  do  in  so  great  a  cause. 
Our  state  is  feeble,  hemmed  in  on  one  side  by  the  river,  on  the 
other  by  the  Rutulians.  But  I  propose  to  ally  thee  with  a  people 
numerous  and  rich,  to  whom  fate  has  brought  thee  at  the  propi- 
tious moment.  The  Etruscans  hold  the  country  beyond  the  river. 
Mezentius  was  their  king,  a  monster  of  cruelty,  who  invented  un- 
heard-of torments  to  gratify  his  vengeance.  He  would  fasten  the 
dead  to  the  living,  hand  to  hand  and  face  to  face,  and  leave  the 
wretched  victims  to  die  in  that  dreadful  embrace.  At  length  peo- 
ple cast  him  out,  him  and  his  house.  They  burned  his  palace, 
and  slew  his  friends.  He  escaped  and  took  refuge  with  Turnus, 
who  protects  him  with  arms.  The  Etruscans  demand  that  he  shall 
be  given  up  to  deserved  punishment,  and  would  ere  now  have  at- 
tempted to  enforce  their  demand  ;  but  their  priests  restrain  them, 
telling  them  that  it  is  the  will  of  heaven  that  no  native  of  the 
land  shall  guide  them  to  victory  and  that  their  destined  leader 
must  come  from  across  the  sea.  They  have  offered  the  crown  to 
me,  but  I  am  too  old  to  undertake  such  great  affairs,  and  my  son  is 
native-born,  which  precludes  him  from  the  choice.  Thou,  equally 
by  birth  and  time  of  life  and  fame  in  arms  pointed  out  by  the 
gods,  hast  but  to  appear  to  be  hailed  at  once  as  their  leader. 
With  thee  I  will  join  Pallas,  my  son,  my  only  hope  and  comfort. 
Under  thee  he  shall  learn  the  art  of  war  and  strive  to  emulate 
thy  great  exploits." 

Then  the  king  ordered  horses  to  be  furnished  for  the  Trojan 
chiefs,  and  ^neas,  with  a  chosen  band  of  followers  and  Pallas 
accompanying,  mounted  and  took  the  way  to  the  Etruscan  city,^ 
having  sent  back  the  rest  of  his  party  in  the  ships.  yEneas  and 
his  band  safely  arrived  at  the  Etruscan  camp  and  were  received 
with  open  arms  by  Tarchon  and  his  countrymen. 

263.  Turnus  attacks  the  Trojan  Camp.  In  the  meanwhile  Tur- 
nus had  collected  his  bands  and  made  all  necessary  preparations 
for  the  war.  Juno  sent  Iris  to  him  with  a  message  inciting  him  to 
take  advantage  of  the  absence  of  ^neas  and  surprise  the  Trojan 
camp.    Accordingly  the  attempt  was  made  ;  but  the  Trojans  were 

1  The  poet  here  inserts  a  famous  line  which  is  thought  to  imitate  in  its  sound  the  gallop- 
ing of  horses  :  Quadritpcdante  puirem  somtit  quatit  2ingula  campum.  —  ^Eneid,  8,  596. 


368  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

found  on  their  guard,  and  having  received  strict  orders  from  ^neas 
not  to  fight  in  his  absence,  they  lay  still  in  their  intrenchments  and 
resisted  all  the  efforts  of  the  Rutulians  to  draw  them  into  the  field. 
Night  coming  on,  the  army  of  Turnus,  in  high  spirits  at  their 
fancied  superiority,  feasted  and  enjoyed  themselves,  and  finally 
stretched  themselves  on  the  field  and  slept  secure. 

264.  Nisus  and  Euryalus.  In  the  camp  of  the  Trojans  things 
were  far  otherwise.  There  all  was  watchfulness  and  anxiety,  and 
impatience  for  yEneas'  return.  Nisus  stood  guard  at  the  entrance 
of  the  camp,  and  Euryalus,  a  youth  distinguished  above  all  in  the 
army  for  graces  of  person  and  fine  qualities,  was  with  him.  These 
two  were  friends  and  brothers  in  arms.  Nisus  said  to  his  friend : 
"  Dost  thou  perceive  what  confidence  and  carelessness  the  enemy 
display  .?  Their  lights  are  few  and  dim,  and  the  men  seem  all 
oppressed  with  wine  or  sleep.  Thou  knowest  how  anxiously  our 
chiefs  wish  to  send  to  yEneas  and  to  get  intelligence  from  him. 
Now  I  am  strongly  moved  to  make  my  way  through  the  enemy's 
camp  and  to  go  in  search  of  our  chief.  If  I  succeed,  the  glory 
of  the  deed  will  be  reward  enough  for  me,  and  if  they  judge  the 
service  deserves  anything  more,  let  them  pay  it  thee." 

Euryalus,  all  on  fire  with  the  love  of  adventure,  replied :  "  Wouldst 
thou  then,  Nisus,  refuse  to  share  thy  enterprise  with  me  ?  And 
shall  I  let  thee  go  into  such  danger  alone .?  Not  so  my  brave  father 
brought  me  up,  nor  so  have  I  planned  for  myself  when  I  joined 
the  standard  of  ^neas  and  resolved  to  hold  my  life  cheap  in  com- 
parison with  honor."  Nisus  replied:  "  I  doubt  it  not,  my  friend  ; 
but  thou  knowest  the  uncertain  event  of  such  an  undertaking,  and 
whatever  may  happen  to  me,  I  wish  thee  to  be  safe.  Thou  art 
younger  than  I  and  hast  more  of  life  in  prospect.  Nor  can  I  be 
the  cause  of  such  grief  to  thy  mother,  who  has  chosen  to  be  here 
in  the  camp  with  thee  rather  than  stay  and  live  in  peace  with  the 
other  matrons  in  Acestes'  city."  Euryalus  replied,  "'  Say  no  more. 
In  vain  dost  thou  seek  arguments  to  dissuade  me.  I  am  fixed  in 
the  resolution  to  go  with  thee.  Let  us  lose  no  time."  They  called 
the  guard  and,  committing  the  watch  to  them,  sought  the  general's 
tent.  They  found  the  chief  officers  in  consultation,  deliberating 
how  they  should  send  notice  to  ^neas  of  their  situation.    The 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  TROJANS  AND  LATINS        369 

offer  of  the  two  friends  was  gladly  accepted,  themselves  loaded 
with  praises  and  promised  the  most  liberal  rewards  in  case  of 
success.  lulus  especially  addressed  Euryalus,  assuring  him  of  his 
lasting  friendship.  Euryalus  replied  :  "  I  have  but  one  boon  to  ask. 
My  aged  mother  is  with  me  in  the  camp.  For  me  she  left  the 
Trojan  soil  and  would  not  stay  behind  with  the  other  matrons  at 
the  city  of  Acestes.  I  go  now  without  taking  leave  of  her.  I  could 
not  bear  her  tears  nor  set  at  naught  her  entreaties.  But  do  thou,  I 
beseech  thee,  comfort  her  in  her  distress.  Promise  me  that  and 
I  shall  go  more  boldly  into  whatever  dangers  may  present  them- 
selves." lulus  and  the  other  chiefs  were  moved  to  tears  and  prom- 
ised to  do  all  his  request.  "  Thy  mother  shall  be  mine,"  said  lulus, 
"and  all  that  I  have  promised  thee  shall  be  made  good  to  her,  if 
thou  dost  not  return  to  receive  it." 

The  two  friends  left  the  camp  and  plunged  at  once  into  the 
midst  of  the  enemy. .  They  found  no  watch,  no  sentinels  posted, 
but,  all  about,  the  sleeping  soldiers  strewn  on  the  grass  and  among 
the  wagons.  The  laws  of  war  at  that  early  day  did  not  forbid  a 
brave  man  to  slay  a  sleeping  foe,  and  the  two  Trojans  slew,  as  they 
passed,  such  of  the  enemy  as  they  could  without  exciting  alarm. 
In  one  tent  Euiyalus  made  prize  of  a  helmet  brilliant  with  gold 
and  plumes.  They  had  passed  through  the  enemy's  ranks  without 
being  discovered,  but  now  suddenly  appeared  a  troop  directly  in 
front  of  them,  which,  under  Volscens,  their  leader,  were  approach- 
ing the  camp.  The  glittering  helmet  of  Euryalus  caught  their 
attention,  and  Volscens  hailed  the  two  and  demanded  who  and 
whence  they  were.  They  made  no  answer,  but  plunged  into  the 
wood.  The  horsemen  scattered  in  all  directions  to  intercept  their 
flight.  Nisus  had  eluded  pursuit  and  was  out  of  danger,  but,  since 
Euryalus  was  missing,  he  turned  back  to  seek  him.  He  again  en- 
tered the  wood  and  soon  came  within  sound  of  voices.  Looking 
through  the  tliicket  he  saw  the  whole  band  surrounding  Euiyalus 
with  noisy  questions.  What  should  he  do  ;  how  extricate  the  youth  ; 
or  would  it  be  better  to  die  with  him  .? 

Raising  his  eyes  to  the  moon  which  now  shone  clear,  he  said, 
'"  Goddess,  favor  my  effort ! "  and,  aiming  his  javelin  at  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  troop,  struck  him  in  the  back  and  stretched  him 


370  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

on  the  plain  with  a  deathblow.  In  the  midst  of  their  amazement 
another  weapon  flew,  and  another  of  the  party  fell  dead.  Volscens, 
the  leader,  ignorant  whence  the  darts  came,  rushed  sword  in  hand 
upon  Euryalus,  "  Thou  shalt  pay  the  penalty  of  both,"  he  said, 
and  would  have  plunged  the  sword  into  his  bosom,  when  Nisus, 
who  from  his  concealment  saw  the  peril  of  his  friend,  rushed  for- 
ward exclaiming,  ""Twas  I  !  'twas  I  !  Turn  your  swords  against 
me,  Rutulians.  I  did  it ;  he  only  followed  me  as  a  friend."  While 
he  spoke  the  sword  fell  and  pierced  the  comely  bosom  of  Euryalus. 
His  head  fell  over  on  his  shoulder,  like  a  flower  cut  down  by  the 
plow.  Nisus  rushed  upon  Volscens  and  plunged  his  sword  into 
his  body,  and  was  himself  slain  on  the  instant  by  numberless  blows. 
265.  The  Death  of  Mezentius.  yEneas,  with  his  Etrurian  allies, 
arrived  on  the  scene  of  action  in  time  to  rescue  his  beleaguered 
camp ;  and  now  the  two  armies  being  nearly  equal  in  strength, 
the  war  began  in  good  earnest.  We  cannot,  find  space  for  all  the 
details,  but  must  simply  record  the  fate  of  the  principal  characters. 
The  tyrant  Mezentius,  finding  himself  engaged  against  his  revolted 
subjects,  raged  like  a  wild  beast.  He  slew  all  who  dared  withstand 
him,  and  put  the  multitude  to  flight  wherever  he  appeared.  At 
last  he  encountered  /Eneas,  and  the  armies  stood  still  to  see  the 
issue.  Mezentius  threw  his  spear,  which,  striking  yEneas'  shield, 
glanced  off  and  hit  Antores,  —  a  Grecian  by  birth  who  had  left 
Argos,  his  native  city,  and  followed  Evander  into  Italy.  The  poet 
says  of  him,  with  simple  pathos  which  has  made  the  words  pro- 
verbial, "  He  fell,  unhappy,  by  a  wound  intended  for  another, 
looked  up  to  the  skies,  and,  dying,  remembered  sweet  Argos."  ^ 
iEneas  now  in  turn  hurled  his  lance.  It  pierced  the  shield  of 
Mezentius  and  wounded  him  in  the  thigh.  Lausus,  his  son,  could 
not  bear  the  sight,  but  rushed  forward  and  interposed  himself, 
while  the  followers  pressed  round  Mezentius  and  bore  him  away, 
^neas  held  his  sword  suspended  over  Lausus  and  delayed  to 
strike,  but  the  furious  youth  pressed  on,  and  he  was  compelled  to 
deal  the  fatal  blow.  Lausus  fell,  and  /Eneas  bent  over  him  in  pity. 
"  Hapless  youth,"  he  said,  "  what  can  I  do  for  thee  worthy  of  thy 

1  Stemiiur  infelix  al'ieno  volnere,  caebimque 
Aspicit,  et  dulcis  moriens  reminisciiiir  Argos.  —  ^neid  lo,  781. 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN   TROJANS  AND  LATINS        371 

praise  ?  Keep  those  arms  in  which  thou  gloriest,  and  fear  not  but 
that  thy  body  shall  be  restored  to  thy  friends  and  have  due  funeral 
honors."  So  saying,  he  called  the  timid  followers  and  delivered 
the  body  into  their  hands. 

Mezentius  meanwhile  had  been  borne  to  the  riverside,  and  had 
washed  his  wound.  Soon  the  news  reached  him  of  Lausus'  death, 
and  rage  and  despair  supplied  the  place  of  strength.  He  mounted 
his  horse  and  dashed  into  the  thickest  of  the  fight,  seeking  ^^neas. 
Having  found  him,  he  rode  round  him  in  a  circle,  throwing  one 
javelin  after  another,  while  yEneas  stood  fenced  with  his  shield, 
turning  every  way  to  meet  them.  At  last  after  Mezentius  had 
three  times  made  the  circuit,  /Eneas  threw  his  lance  directly  at 
the  horse's  head.  The  animal  fell  with  pierced  temples,  while  a 
shout  from  both  armies  rent  the  skies.  Mezentius  asked  no  mercy, 
but  only  that  his  body  might  be  spared  the  insults  of  his  revolted 
subjects  and  be  buried  in  the  same  grave  with  his  son.  He  re- 
ceived the  fatal  stroke  not  unprepared,  and  poured  out  his  life  and 
his  blood  together. 

.  266.  The  Deaths  of  Pallas  and  Camilla.  While  these  things 
were  doing  in  one  part  of  the  field,  in  another  Turnus  encountered 
the  youthful  Pallas.  The  contest  between  champions  so  unequally 
matched  could  not  be  doubtful.  Pallas  bore  himself  bravely,  but 
fell  by  the  lance  of  Turnus.  The  victor  almost  relented  when  he  saw 
the  brave  youth  lying  dead  at  his  feet,  and  spared  to  use  the  privi- 
lege of  a  conqueror  in  despoiling  him  of  his  arms.  The  belt  only, 
adorned  with  studs  and  carvings  of  gold,  he  took  and  clasped  round 
his  own  body.    The  rest  he  remitted  to  the  friends  of  the  slain. 

After  the  battle  there  was  a  cessation  of  arms  for  some  days  to 
allow  both  armies  to  bury  their  dead.  In  this  interval  yEneas  chal- 
lenged Turnus  to  decide  the  contest  by  single  combat,  but  Turnus 
evaded  the  challenge.  Another  battle  ensued,  in  which  Camilla, 
the  virgin  warrior,  was  chiefly  conspicuous.  Her  deeds  of  valor 
surpassed  those  of  the  bravest  warriors,  and  many  Trojans  and 
Etruscans  fell  pierced  with  her  darts  or  struck  down  by  her  battle- 
ax.  At  last  an  Etruscan  named  Aruns,  who  had  watched  her 
long,  seeking  for  some  advantage,  observed  her  pursuing  an  enemy 
whose  splendid  armor  offered  a  tempting  prize.     Intent  on  the 


372  THK  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

chase  she  observed  not  her  danger,  and  the  javehn  of  Aruns  struck 
her  and  inflicted  a  fatal  wound.  She  fell  and  breathed  her  last  in 
the  arms  of  her  attendant  maidens.  But  Diana,  who  beheld  her  fate, 
suffered  not  her  slaughter  to  be  unavenged.  Aruns,  as  he  stole 
away  glad  but  frightened,  was  struck  by  a  secret  arrow,  launched 
by  one  of  the  nymphs  of  Diana's  train,  and  he  died  ignobly  and 
unknown. 

267.  The  Final  Conflict.  At  length  the  final  conflict  took  place 
between  yEneas  and  Turnus.  Turnus  had  avoided  the  contest  as 
long  as  he  could  ;  but  at  last,  impelled  by  the  ill"  success  of  his 
arms  and  by  the  murmurs  of  his  followers,  he  braced  himself  to 
the  conflict.  The  outcome  could  not  be  doubtful.  On  the  side  of 
^neas  were  the  expressed  decree  of  destiny,  the  aid  of  his  god- 
dess-mother in  every  emergency,  and  impenetrable  armor  fabricated 
by  Vulcan,  at  her  request,  for  her  son.  Turnus,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  deserted  by  his  celestial  allies,  Juno  having  been  expressly  for- 
bidden by  Jupiter  to  assist  him  any  longer.  Turnus  threw  his  lance, 
but  it  recoiled  harmless  from  the  shield  of  /Eneas.  The  Trojan 
hero  then  threw  his,  which,  penetrating  the  shield  of  Turnus, 
pierced  his  thigh.  Then  Turnus'  fortitude  forsook  him,  and  he 
begged  for  mercy ;  ^neas,  indeed,  would  have  spared  his  oppo- 
nent's life,  but  at  the  instant  his  eye  fell  on  the  belt  of  Pallas, 
which  Turnus  had  Uiken  from  the  slaughtered  youth.  Instantly 
his  rage  revived,  and  exclaiming,  "  Pallas  immolates  thee  with  this 
blow,"  he  thrust  him  through  with  his  sword. 

Here  the  poem  of  the  /Eneid  closes,  and  we  are  left  to  infer 
that  ^neas,  having  triumphed  over  his  foes,  obtained  Lavinia  for 
his  bride.  Tradition  adds  that  he  founded  a  city  and  called  it 
Lavinium,  after  her  name.  His  son  lulus  founded  Alba  Longa, 
which  became  the  birthplace  of  Romulus  and  Remus  and  the  cradle 
of  Rome. 


NIKE   OF   BRESCIA 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

MYTHS  OF  THE  NORSE  GODS  ^ 

268.  The  Creaticn.  According  to  the  Eddas  there  was  once  no 
heaven  above  nor  earth  beneath,  but  only  a  bottomless  deep,  Gin- 
ungagap,  and  a  world  of  mist,  Niflheim,  in  which  sprang  a  foun- 
tain. Twelve  rivers  issued  from  this  fountain,  Vergelmir,  and 
when  they  had  flowed  far  from  their  source,  they  froze  into  ice,  and 
one  layer  accumulating  over  another,  the  great  deep  was  filled  up. 

Southward  from  the  world  of  mist  was  the  world  of  light,  Mus- 
pelheim.  From  this  proceeded  a  warm  wind  upon  the  ice  and 
melted  it.  The  vapors  rose  in  the  air  and  formed  clouds,  from 
which  sprang  Ymir,  the  rime-cold  giant  and  his  progeny,  and  the 
cow  Audhumbla,  whose  milk  afforded  nourishment  and  food  to 
the  giant.  The  cow  got  nourishment  by  licking  the  hoar  frost  and 
salt  from  the  ice.  While  she  was  one  day  licking  the  salt  stones 
there  appeared  at  first  the  hair  of  some  being,  on  the  second  day 
his  whole  head,  and  on  the  third  the  entire  form  endowed  with 
beauty,  agility,  and  power.  This  new  being  was  a  god,  Bori,  from 
whom  and  his  wife,  a  daughter  of  the  giant  race,  sprang  Bor,  the 
father  of  Odin,  Vili,  and  Ve.  These  three  slew  the  giant  Ymir, 
and  out  of  his  body  formed  the  earth,  of  his  blood  the  seas,  of  his 
bones  the  mountains,  of  his  hair  the  trees,  of  his  skull  the  heavens, 
and  of  his  brain  clouds,  charged  with  hail  and  snow.  Of  Ymir's 
eyebrows  the  gods  built  a  fence  around  the  Midgard  or  mid-earth 
between  Niflheim  and  Muspelheim,  destined  to  become  the  abode 
of  man. 

Odin  then  regulated  the  periods  of  day  and  night  and  the 
seasons  by  placing  in  the  heavens  the  sun  and  moon,  and  appoint- 
ing to  them  their  respective  courses.  As  soon  as  the  sun  began 
to  shed  its  rays  upon  the  earth,  it  caused  the  vegetable  world  to 

1  For  Records  of  Norse  Mythology,  see  §  300,  and  Commentary,  §§  268,  282,  and  300. 

373 


374  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

bud  and  sprout.  Shortly  after  the  gods  (the  Anse-race,  Anses, 
^sir,  or  Asa-folk)  had  created  the  world,  they  walked  by  the  side 
of  the  sea,  pleased  with  their  new  work,  but  found  that  it  was  still 
incomplete,  for  it  was  without  human  beings.  They  therefore  took 
an  ashen  spar  and  made  a  man  out  of  it ;  woman  they  made  out 
of  a  piece  of  elm ;  and  they  called  the  man  Ask  and  the  woman 
Embla.  Odin  then  gave  them  life  and  soul,  Vili  reason  and  motion, 
and  Ve  bestowed  upon  them  the  senses,  expressive  features,  and 
speech.  Midgard  was  given  them  as  their  residence,  and  they 
became  the  progenitors  of  the  human  race. 

269.  Yggdrasil.  The  mighty  ash  tree,  Yggdrasil,  was  supposed 
to  support  the  whole  universe.  It  sprang  from  the  body  of  Ymir, 
and  had  three  immense  roots,  extending  one  into  Midgard  (the 
dwelling  of  mortals),  another  into  Jotunheim  (the  abode  of  the 
giants),  and  the  third  below  Niflheim,  into  the  region  of  Death. 
By  the  side  of  each  of  these  roots  is  a  spring,  from  which  it  is 
watered.  The  root  that  extends  into  Midgard  is  carefully  tended 
by  the  three  Norns,  —  goddesses  who  are  regarded  as  the  dis- 
pensers of  fate.  They  are  Urd  (the  past),  Verdandi  (the  present), 
Skuld  (the  future).  The  spring  at  the  Jotunheim  side  is  Mimir's 
well,  in  which  wisdom  and  wit  lie  hidden,  but  that  below  Niflheim 
refreshes  also  the  dark  dragon  of  despair,  Nidhogg  (the  back-biter), 
which  perpetually  gnaws  at  the  root.  Four  harts  run  across  the 
branches  of  the  tree  and  nip  the  buds ;  they  represent  the  four 
winds.  Under  the  tree  lies  Ymir,  and  when  he  tries  to  shake  off  its 
weight  the  earth  quakes.  The  boughs  overshadow  the  earth,  and 
the  top  rises  into  Asgard  in  the  zenith. 

270.  Odin  and  his  Valhalla.  To  Asgard,  the  abode  of  the  gods, 
access  is  gained  only  by  crossing  the  bridge,  Bifrost  (the  rainbow). 
Asgard — Gladsheim  for  the  gods,  Vingolf  for  the  goddesses  —  con- 
sists of  golden  and  silver  palaces ;  but  the  most  beautiful  of  these 
is  Valhalla,  the  great  hall  of  Odin.  When  seated  on  his  throne  he 
overlooks  heaven  and  earth.  Beside  him  sits  Frigga  (or  Frkkd), 
his  wife,  who  knows  all  things.  Upon  his  shoulders  are  the  ravens, 
Hugin  and  Munin,  —  Thought  and  Memory, — who  fly  every  day 
over  the  whole  world,  and  on  their  return  report  to  him  what  they 
have  seen  and  heard.    At  his  feet  lie  his  two  wolves,  Geri  and 


MYTHS  OF  THE  NORSE  GODS 


175 


Freki,  to  whom  Odin  gives  the  meat  that  is  set  before  him,  for  he 
himself  stands  in  no  need  of  food.  Mead  is  for  him  both  food  and 
drink.  He  invented  the  Runic  characters  ;  the  decrees  of  fate,  in- 
scribed therein,  it  is  the  business  of  the  Norns  to  engrave  upon  a 


Fig.  i86.   Valkyrie  bearing  a  Hero  to  Valhalla 
From  the  painting  by  Dielitz 

metal  shield.     From  Odin's  name,  spelt  Woden,  as  it  sometimes 
is,  comes  our  English  word,  Wednesday. 

Odin  is  frequently  called  Alfadur  (All-father),  but  this  name  is 
sometimes  used  in  a  way  that  shows  that  the  Scandinavians  had  an 
idea  of  a  deity  superior  to  Odin,  uncreated  and  eternal.  In  Valhalla 
Odin  feasts  with  his  chosen  heroes,  all  those  who  have  fallen  bravely 
in  battle,  for  all  who  die  a  peaceful  death  are  excluded.    The  flesh 


376  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

of  the  boar  Serimnir  is  served  up  to  them  and  is  abundant  for  all. 
For  although  this  boar  is  cooked  every  morning,  he  becomes  whole 
again  every  night.  For  drink  the  heroes  are  supplied  abundantly 
with  mead  from  the  she-goat  Heidrun.  When  the  heroes  are  not 
feasting,  they  amuse  themselves  with  fighting.  Every  day  they  ride 
out  into  the  court  or  field  and  fight  until  they  cut  each  other  in 
pieces.  This  is  their  pastime  ;  but  when  mealtime  comes,  they 
recover  from  their  wounds  and  return  to  feast  in  Valhalla. 

271.  The  Valkyries.  The  Valkyries  are  warlike  virgins,  mounted 
upon  horses  and  armed  with  helmets,  shields,  and  spears.  Odin  is 
desirous  of  gathering  many  heroes  in  Valhalla  that  he  may  glori- 
ously meet  the  giants  in  the  day  of  the  final  contest ;  he  therefore 
sends  to  every  battle  field  for  the  bravest  of  those  who  shall  be 
slain.  The  Valkyries,  Choosers  of  the  Slain,  are  his  messengers. 
Later  they  are  called  his  daughters.  When  they  ride  forth  on 
their  errand,  their  armor  sheds  a  weird  flickering  light  over  the 
northern  skies,  making  what  men  call  the  Aurora  Borealis.^ 

272.  Thor  and  the  Other  Gods.  Of  the  following,  Thor,  Vidar, 
Bragi,  Balder,  and  Hoder  are  sons  of  Odin.  Thor,  the  thunderer, 
Odin's  eldest  son,  is  the  strongest  of  gods  and  men,  and  possesses 
three  precious  things.  The  first  is  a  hammer,  which  both  the  Frost 
and  the  Mountain  giants  (Hrim-thursar  and  Berg-risar)  know  to 
their  cost,  when  they  see  it  hurled  against  them  in  the  air,  for  it 
has  split  many  a  skull  of  their  fathers  and  kindred.  When  thrown, 
it  returns  to  his  hand  of  its  own  accord.  The  second  rare  thing 
he  possesses  is  the  belt  of  strength.  When  he  girds  it  about  him 
his  divine  might  is  doubled.  The  third  is  his  iron  gloves,  which 
he  puts  on  whenever  he  would  use  his  mallet  efficiently.  From 
Thor's  name  is  derived  our  word  Thursday. 

Vidar  comes  next  in  strength  to  Thor. 

Bragi  is  the  god  of  poetry,  and  his  song  records  the  deeds  of 
warriors.  His  wife,  Idiina,  keeps  in  a  box  the  apples  which  the 
gods,  when  they  feel  old  age  approaching,  have  only  to  taste  of 
to  become  young  again. 

Balder,  dearest  of  the  Anses,  is  the  god  of  sunlight,  spring,  and 
gladness.    Hoder,  his  opposite,  is  the  blind  god  of  winter. 

1  Gray's  ode,  The  Fatal  Sisters,  is  founded  on  this  superstition. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  NORSE  GODS  377 

Of  other  gods,  Freyr  presides  over  rain  and  sunshine  and  all  the 
fruits  of  the  earth.  His  sister  Freya  (Freia)  is  the  most  propitious  of 
the  goddesses.  She  loves  music,  spring,  and  flowers,  and  the  fairies 
of  Elfheim.    She  is  the  goddess  of  love.    Her  day  is  Friday. 

Tyr  {Zhc  or  Tizi<),  from  whose  name  is  derived  our  Tuesday, 
is  the  wrestler  among  the  gods  ;  and  preeminently  the  "  god  of 
battles." 

Hcimdall  is  the  watchman  of  the  gods,  and  is  therefore  placed 
on  the  borders  of  heaven  to  prevent  the  giants  froni  forcing  their 
way  over  the  bridge  Bifrost,  He  requires  less  sleep  than  a  bird, 
and  sees  by  night  as  well  as  by  day  a  hundred  miles  around  him. 
So  acute  is  his  ear  that  no  sound  escapes  him,  for  he  can  even 
hear  the  grass  grow, — and  the  wool  on  a  sheep's  back. 

273.  Loki  and  his  Progeny.  Loki  (or  Loge)  is  described  as  the 
calumniator  of  the  gods  and  the  contriver  of  all  fraud  and  mischief. 
He  is  the  son  of  Farbauti,  the  Charon  of  Norse  mythology.  He  is 
handsome  and  well  made,  but  of  fickle  mood  and  evil  disposition. 
Although  of  the  demon  race,  he  forced  himself  into  the  company 
of  the  gods,  and  seemed  to  take  pleasure  in  bringing  them  into 
difficulties,  and  in  extricating  them  out  of  the  danger  by  his 
cunning,  wit,  and  skill.  Loki  has  three  children.  The  first  is  the 
wolf  Fenris,  the  second  the  Midgard  Serpent,  the  third  Hela 
(Death).  The  gods  were  not  ignorant  that  these  monsters  were 
maturing  and  that  they  would  one  day  bring  much  evil  upon  gods 
and  men.  So  Odin  deemed  it  advisable  to  send  one  to  bring  them 
to  him.  When  they  came  he  threw  the  serpent  in  that  deep  ocean 
by  which  the  earth  is  surrounded.  But  the  monster  has  grown  to 
such  an  enormous  size  that,  holding  his  tail  in  his  mouth,  he  encir- 
cles the  whole  earth.  Hela  he  hurled  below  Niflheim  and  gave 
her  power  over  nine  worlds  or  regions,  in  which  she  distributes 
those  who  are  sent  to  her,  —  that  is,  all  who  die  of  sickness  or  old 
age.  Her  hall  is  called  Eliudnir,  or  Sleet-den.  Hunger  is  her  table. 
Starvation  her  knife.  Delay  her  man,  Slowness  her  maid,  Pale  Woe 
her  door,  Stumbling-stone  her  threshold,  Care  her  bed ;  and  Fall- 
ing-peril forms  the  hangings  of  her  apartments.  She  may  easily 
be  recognized,  for  her  body  is  half  flesh  color  and  half  blue,  and 
she  presents  a  stern  and  forbidding  countenance. 


378  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

The  wolf  Fenris  gave  the  gods  a  great  deal  of  trouble  before 
they  succeeded  in  chaining  him.  He  broke  the  strongest  fetters 
as  if  they  were  made  of  cobwebs.  Finally  the  gods  sent  a  mes- 
senger to  the  mountain  spirits,  who  made  for  them  the  chain 
called  Gleipnir.  It  is  fashioned  of  six  things,  —  the  noise  made 
by  the  footfall  of  a  cat,  the  beards  of  women,  the  roots  of  stones, 
the  breath  of  fishes,  the  nerves  (sensibilities)  of  bears,  and  the 
spittle  of  birds.  When  finished  it  was  as  smooth  and  soft  as  a 
silken  string.  But  when  the  gods  asked  the  wolf  to  suffer  himself 
to  be  bound  with  this  apparently  slight  ribbon,  he  suspected  their 
design,  fearing  that  it  was  made  by  enchantment.  He  therefore 
consented  to  be  bound  with  it  only  upon  condition  that  one  of  the 
gods  put  his  hand  in  his  (Fenris')  mouth  as  a  pledge  that  the  band 
was  to  be  removed  again.  Tyr  alone  had  courage  enough  to  do 
this.  But  when  the  wolf  found  that  he  could  not  break  his  fetters 
and  that  the  gods  would  not  release  him,  he  bit  off  Tyr's  hand. 
Tyr,  consequently,  has  ever  since  remained  one-handed. 

274.  The  Conflict  with  the  Mountain  Giants.  When  the  gods 
were  constructing  their  abodes  and  had  already  finished  Midgard 
and  Valhalla,  a  certain  artificer  came  and  offered  to  build  them  a 
residence  so  well  fortified  that  they  should  be  perfectly  safe  from 
the  incursions  of  the  Frost  giants  and  the  giants  of  the  mountains. 
But  he  demanded  for  his  reward  the  goddess  Freya,  together  with 
the  sun  and  moon.  The  gods  yielded  to  the  terms,  provided  that 
the  artificer  would  finish  the  whole  work  without  any  one's  assist- 
ance, and  all  within  the  space  of  one  winter.  But  if  anything 
remained  unfinished  on  the  first  day  of  summer,  he  should  forfeit 
the  recompense  agreed  on.  On  being  told  these  terms,  the  artificer 
stipulated  that  he  be  allowed  the  use  of  his  horse  Svadilfari,  and 
this  request,  by  the  advice  of  Loki,  was  conceded.  He  accordingly 
set  to  work  on  the  first  day  of  winter,  and  during  the  night  let  his 
horse  draw  stone  for  the  building.  The  enormous  size  of  the  stones 
struck  the  gods  with  astonishment,  and  they  saw  clearly  that  the 
horse  did  one  half  more  of  the  toilsome  work  than  his  master. 
Their  bargain,  however,  had  been  concluded  and  confirmed  by 
solemn  oaths,  for  without  these  precautions  a  giant  would  not  have 
thought  himself  safe  among  the  gods.  —  still  less,  indeed,  if  Thor 


MYTHS  OF  THE  NORSE  GODS  379 

should  return  from  the  expedition  he  had  then  undertaken  against 
the  evil  demons. 

As  the  winter  drew  to  a  close  the  building  was  far  advanced, 
and  the  bulwarks  were  sufficiently  high  and  massive  to  render  the 
place  impregnable.  In  short,  when  it  wanted  but  three  days  to 
summer,  the  only  part  that  remained  to  be  finished  was  the  gate- 
way. Then  sat  the  gods  on  their  seats  of  justice  and  entered  into 
consultation,  inquiring  of  one  another  who  among  them  could  have 
advised  the  rest  to  surrender  Freya,  or  to  plunge  the  heavens  in 
darkness  by  permitting  the  giant  to  carry  away  the  sun  and  the 
moon. 

They  all  agreed  that  no  one  but  Loki,  the  author  of  so  many 
evil  deeds,  could  have  given  such  counsel,  and  that  he  should 
be  put  to  a  cruel  death  unless  he  contrived  some  way  to  prevent 
the  artificer  from  completing  his  task  and  obtaining  the  stipulated 
recompense.  They  proceeded  to  lay  hands  on  Loki,  who  in  his 
fright  promised  upon  oath  that,  let  it  cost  him  what  it  might,  he 
would  so  manage  matters  that  the  man  should  lose  his  reward. 
That  night  when  the  man  went  with  Svadilfari  for  building-stone, 
a  mare  suddenly  ran  out  of  a  forest  and  began  to  neigh.  The 
horse  thereat  broke  loose  and  ran  after  the  mare  into  the  forest, 
obliging  the  man  also  to  run  after  his  horse  ;  thus,  therefore,  be- 
tween one  and  another  the  whole  night  was  lost,  so  that  at  dawn 
the  work  had  not  made  the  usual  progress.  The  man,  seeing  that 
he  must  fail  of  completing  his  task,  resumed  his  own  gigantic 
stature,  and  the  gods  now  clearly  perceived  that  it  was  in  reality 
a  mountain  giant  who  had  come  amongst  them.  Feeling  no  longer 
bound  by  their  oaths,  they  called  on  Thor,  who  immediately  ran  to 
their  assistance  and,  lifting  up  his  mallet,  paid  the  workman  his 
wages,  not  with  the  sun  and  moon,  and  not  even  by  sending  him 
back  to  Jotunheim,  for  with  the  first  blow  he  shattered  the  giant's 
skull  to  pieces  and  hurled  him  headlong  into  Niflheim. 

275.  The  Recovery  of  Thor's  Hammer.  Soon  afterward  it  hap- 
pened that  Thor's  hammer  fell  into  the  possession  of  the  giant 
Thrym,  who  buried  it  eight  fathoms  deep  under  the  rocks  of 
Jotunheim.  Thor  sent  Loki  to  negotiate  with  Thrym,  but  he 
could  only  prevail  so  far  as  to  get  the  giant's  promise  to  restore 


380  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

the  weapon  if  Freya  would  consent  to  be  his  bride.  Loki  returned 
and  reported  the  result  of  his  mission,  but  the  goddess  of  love  was 
horrified  at  the  idea  of  bestowing  her  charms  on  the  king  of  the 
Frost  giants.  In  this  emergency  Loki  persuaded  Thor  to  dress 
himself  in  Freya's  clothes  and  accompany  him  to  Jotunheim. 
Thrym  received  his  veiled  bride  with  due  courtesy,  but  was  greatly 
surprised  at  seeing  her  eat  for  her  supper  eight  salmon  and  a 
full-grown  ox  besides  other  delicacies,  washing  the  whole  down  with 
three  tuns  of  mead.  Loki,  however,  assured  him  that  she  had  not 
tasted  anything  for  eight  long  nights,  so  great  was  her  desire  to 
see  her  lover,  the  renowned  ruler  of  Jotunheim.  Thrym  had  at 
last  the  curiosity  to  peep  under  his  bride's  veil,  but  started  back  in 
affright,  and  demanded  why  Freya's  eyeballs  glistened  with  fire. 
Loki  repeated  the  same  excuse,  and  the  giant  was  satisfied.  He 
ordered  the  hammer  to  be  brought  in  and  laid  on  the  maiden's  lap. 
Thereupon  Thor  threw  off  his  disguise,  grasped  his  redoubted 
weapon,  and  slaughtered  Thrym  and  all  his  followers. 

276.  Thor's  Visit  to  Jotunheim.  One  day  Thor,  with  his  serv- 
ant Thialfi  and  accompanied  by  Loki,  set  out  for  the  giants' 
country.  Thialfi  was  of  all  men  the  swiftest  of  foot.  He  bore 
Thor's  wallet  containing  their  provisions.  When  night  came  on 
they  found  themselves  in  an  immense  forest,  and  searched  on  all 
sides  for  a  place  where  they  might  pass  the  night.  At  last  they 
came  to  a  large  hall,  with  an  entrance  that  took  the  whole  breadth 
of  one  end  of  the  building.  Here  they  lay  down  to  sleep,  but 
towards  midnight  were  alarmed  by  an  earthquake  which  shook  the 
whole  edifice,  Thor,  rising  up,  called  on  his  companions  to  seek 
with  him  a  place  of  safety.  On  the  right  they  found  an  adjoining 
chamber  into  which  the  others  entered,  but  Thor  remained  at  the 
doorway  with  his  mallet  in  his  hand,  prepared  to  defend  himself 
whatever  might  happen.  A  terrible  groaning  was  heard  during  the 
night,  and  at  dawn  of  day  Thor  went  out  and  found  lying  near 
him  a  huge  giant,  still  snoring  in  the  way  that  had  alarmed  them. 
For  once  Thor  was  afraid  to  use  his  mallet,  and  as  the  giant  soon 
waked  up,  Thor  contented  himself  with  simply  asking  his  name. 

"My  name  is  Skrymir,"  said  the  giant,  "but  I  need  not  ask 
thy  name,  for  I  know  that  thou  art  the  god  Thor.   But  what  has 


MYTHS  OF  THE  NORSE  GODS  38 1 

become  of  my  glove  ?  "  Thor  then  perceived  that  what  they  had 
taken  overnight  for  a  hall  was  the  giant's  glove,  and  the  cham- 
ber where  his  two  companions  had  sought  refuge  was  the  thumb. 
Skrymir  then  proposed  that  they  should  travel  in  company,  and 
Thor  consenting,  they  sat  down  to  eat  their  breakfast.  When 
they  had  done,  Skr}^mir  packed  all  the  provisions  into  one  wallet, 
threw  it  over  his  shoulder,  and  strode  on  before  them,  taking  such 
tremendous  strides  that  they  were  hard  put  to  it  to  keep  up  with 
him.  So  they  traveled  the  whole  day,  and  at  dusk  Skrymir  chose  a 
place  for  them  to  pass  the  night  in  under  a  large  oak  tree.  Skr)'mir 
then  told  them  he  would  lie  down  to  sleep.  "  But  take  ye  the 
wallet,"  he  added,  "  and  prepare  your  supper." 

Skrymir  soon  fell  asleep  and  began  to  snore  strongly,  but  when 
Thor  tried  to  open  the  wallet,  he  found  the  giant  had  tied  it  up  so 
tight  he  could  not  untie  a  single  knot.  At  last  Thor  became  wroth, 
and  grasping  his  mallet  with  both  hands,  he  struck  a  furious  blow 
on  the  giant's  head.  Skrymir,  awakening,  merely  asked  whether  a 
leaf  had  not  fallen  on  his  head,  and  whether  they  had  supped  and 
were  ready  to  go  to  sleep.  Thor  answered  that  they  were  just  going 
to  sleep,  and  so  saying  went  and  laid  himself  down  under  another 
tree.  But  sleep  came  not  that  night  to  Thor,  and  when  Skrymir 
snored  again  so  loud  that  the  forest  reechoed  with  the  noise,  he 
arose,  and,  grasping  his  mallet,  launched  it  with  such  force  at  the 
giant's  skull  that  it  made  a  deep  dint  in  it.  Skrymir,  awakening, 
cried  out:  "What's  the  matter.?  Are  there  any  birds  perched  on 
this  tree .''  I  felt  some  moss  from  the  branches  fall  on  my  head. 
How  fares  it  with  thee,  Thor  ? "  But  Thor  went  away  hastily,  say- 
ing that  he  had  just  then  awoke,  and  that  as  it  was  only  midnight, 
there  was  still  time  for  sleep.  He,  however,  resolved  that  if  he 
had  an  opportunity  of  striking  a  third  blow,  it  should  settle  all 
matters  between  them.  A  little  before  daybreak  he  perceived  that 
Skrymir  was  again  fast  asleep,  and  again  grasping  his  mallet,  he 
dashed  it  with  such  violence  that  it  forced  its  way  into  the  giant's 
skull  up  to  the  handle.  But  Skrymir  sat  up,  and,  stroking  his 
cheek,  said  :  "An  acorn  fell  on  my  head.  What !  Art  thou  awake, 
Thor  ?  Methinks  it  is  time  for  us  to  get  up  and  dress  ourselves  ; 
but  you  have  not  now  a  long  way  before  you  to  the  city  called 


382  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Utgard,  I  have  heard  you  whispering  to  one  another  that  I  am 
not  a  man  of  small  dimensions,  but  if  you  come  to  Utgard,  you 
will  see  there  many  men  much  taller  than  I.  Wherefore  I  advise 
you,  when  you  come  there,  not  to  make  too  much  of  yourselves ; 
for  the  followers  of  Utgard-Loki  will  not  brook  the  boasting  of 
such  little  fellows  as  you  are.  You  must  take  the  road  that  leads 
eastward  ;  mine  lies  northward,  so  we  must  part  here." 

Hereupon  he  threw  his  wallet  over  his  shoulders  and  turned 
away  from  them  into  the  forest,  and  Thor  had  no  wish  to  stop 
him  or  to  ask  for  any  more  of  his  company. 

Thor  and  his  companions  proceeded  on  their  way,  and  towards 
noon  descried  a  city  standing  in  the  middle  of  a  plain.  It  was  so 
lofty  that  they  were  obliged  to  bend  their  necks  quite  back  on 
their  shoulders  in  order  to  see  to  the  top  of  it.  On  arriving  they 
entered  the  city,  and  seeing  a  large  palace  before  them  with  the 
door  wide  open,  they  went  in  and  found  a  number  of  men  of 
prodigious  stature,  sitting  on  benches  in  the  hall.  Going  further, 
they  came  before  the  king  Utgard-Loki,  whom  they  saluted  with 
great  respect.  The  king,  regarding  them  with  a  scornful  smile, 
said,  "If  I  do  not  mistake  me,  that  stripling  yonder  must  be  the 
god  Thor."  Then  addressing  himself  to  Thor,  he  said  :  "Perhaps 
thou  mayst  be  more  than  thou  appearest  to  be.  What  are  the  feats 
that  thou  and  thy  fellows  deem  yourselves  skilled  in  ?  —  for  no  one 
is  permitted  to  remain  here  who  does  not,  in  some  feat  or  other, 
excel  all  other  men." 

"The  feat  that  I  know,"  said  Loki,  "is  to  eat  quicker  than  any 
one  else,  and  in  this  I  am  ready  to  give  a  proof  against  any  one 
here  who  may  choose  to  compete  with  me." 

"That  will  indeed  be  a  feat,  if  thou  performest  what  thou  prom- 
isest,"  said  Utgard-Loki,  "and  it  shall  be  tried  forthwith." 

He  then  ordered  one  of  his  men,  who  was  sitting  at  the  farther 
end  of  the  bench  and  whose  name  was  Logi,  to  come  forward  and 
try  his  skill  with  Loki.  A  trough  filled  with  meat  having  been  set 
on  the  hall  floor,  Loki  placed  himself  at  one  end  and  Logi  at  the 
other,  and  each  of  them  began  to  eat  as  fast  as  he  could,  until  they 
met  in  the  middle  of  the  trough.  But  it  was  found  that  Loki  had 
only  eaten  the  flesh,  while  his  adversary  had  devoured  both  flesh  and 


MYTHS  OF  THE  NORSE  GODS         383 

bone,  and  the  trough  to  boot.  All  the  company  therefore  adjudged 
that  Loki  was  vanquished. 

Utgard-Loki  then  asked  what  feat  the  young  man  who  accom- 
panied Thor  could  perform.  Thialfi  answered  that  he  would  run  a 
race  with  any  one  who  might  be  matched  against  him.  The  king 
observed  that  skill  in  running  was  something  to  boast  of,  but  if  the 
youth  would  win  the  match,  he  must  display  great  agility.  He  then 
arose  and  went,  with  all  who  were  present,  to  a  plain  where  there 
was  good  ground  for  running  on,  and  calling  a  young  man  named 
Hugi,  bade  him  run  a  match  with  Thialfi.  In  the  first  course  Hugi 
so  much  outstripped  his  competitor  that  he  turned  back  and  met 
him  not  far  from  the  starting-place.  Then  they  ran  a  second  and 
a  third  time,  but  Thialfi  met  with  no  better  success. 

Utgard-Loki  then  asked  Thor  in  what  feats  he  would  choose 
to  give  proofs  of  that  prowess  for  which  he  was  so  famous.  Thor 
answered  that  he  would  try  a  drinking-match  with  any  one.  Utgard- 
Loki  bade  his  cupbearer  bring  the  large  horn  which  his  followers 
were  obliged  to  empty  when  they  had  trespassed  in  any  way  against 
the  law  of  the  feast.  The  cupbearer  having  presented  it  to  Thor, 
Utgard-Loki  said,  "Whoever  is  a  good  drinker  will  empty  that 
horn  at  a  single  draft,  though  most  men  make  two  of  it ;  but  the 
most  puny  drinker  can  do  it  in  three." 

Thor  looked  at  the  horn,  which  seemed  of  no  extraordinary  size, 
though  somewhat  long ;  however,  as  he  was  very  thirsty,  he  set 
it  to  his  lips  and,  without  drawing  breath,  pulled  as  long  and  as 
deeply  as  he  could,  that  he  might  not  be  obliged  to  make  a  second 
draft  of  it ;  but  when  he  set  the  horn  down  and  looked  in,  he  could 
scarcely  perceive  that  the  liquor  was  diminished. 

After  taking  breath,  Thor  went  to  it  again  with  all  his  might, 
but  when  he  took  the  horn  from  his  mouth,  it  seemed  to  him  that 
he  had  drank  rather  less  than  before,  although  the  horn  could  now 
be  carried  without  spilling. 

"How  now,  Thor,"  said  Utgard-Loki,  "thou  must  not  spare  thy- 
self ;  if  thou  meanest  to  drain  the  horn  at  the  third  draft,  thou 
must  pull  deeply ;  and  I  must  needs  say  that  thou  wilt  not  be 
called  so  mighty  a  man  here  as  thou  art  at  home  if  thou  showest  no 
greater  prowess  in  other  feats  than  methinks  will  be  shown  in  this." 


3^4  'IHE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Thor,  full  of  wrath,  again  set  the  horn  to  his  lips  and  did  his 
best  to  empty  it ;  but  on  looking  in  found  the  liquor  was  only  a 
little  lower,  so  he  resolved  to  make  no  further  attempt,  but  gave 
back  the  horn  to  the  cupbearer. 

"I  now  see  plainly,"  said  Utgard-Loki,  "that  thou  art  not  quite 
so  stout  as  we  thought  thee ;  but  wilt  thou  try  any  other  feat  ?  — 
though  methinks  thou  art  not  likely  to  bear  any  prize  away  with 
thee  hence." 

"What  new  trial  hast  thou  to  propose  ?"  said  Thor. 

"We  have  a  very  trifling  game  here,"  answered  Utgard-Loki, 
"in  which  we  exercise  none  but  children.  It  consists  in  merely 
lifting  my  cat  from  the  ground  ;  nor  should  I  have  dared  to  men- 
tion such  a  feat  to  the  great  Thor  if  I  had  not  already  observed 
that  thou  art  by  no  means  what  we  took  thee  for." 

As  he  finished  speaking  a  large  gray  cat  sprang  on  the  hall  floor. 
Thor  put  his  hand  under  the  cat's  belly  and  did  his  utmost  to  raise 
him  from  the  floor,  but  the  cat,  bending  his  back,  had,  notwith- 
standing all  Thor's  efi'orts,  only  one  of  his  feet  lifted  up,  seeing 
which  Thor  made  no  further  attempt. 

"This  trial  has  turned  out,"  said  Utgard-Loki,  "just  as  I  imag- 
ined it  would.  The  cat  is  large,  but  Thor  is  little  in  comparison  to 
our  men." 

"  Little  as  ye  call  me,"  answered  Thor,  "let  me  see  who  among 
you  will  come  hither  now  that  I  am  in  wrath  and  wrestle  with  me." 

"I  see  no  one  here,"  said  Utgard-Loki,  looking  at  the  men 
sitting  on  the  benches,  "who  would  not  think  it  beneath  him  to 
wrestle  with  thee;  let  somebody,  however,  call  hither  that  old 
crone,  my  nurse  Elli,  and  let  Thor  wrestle  with  her  if  he  will. 
She  has  thrown  to  the  ground  many  a  man  not  less  strong  than 
this  Thor  is." 

A  toothless  old  woman  then  entered  the  hall,  and  was  told  by 
Utgard-Loki  to  take  hold  of  Thor.  The  tale  is  shortly  told.  The 
more  Thor  tightened  his  hold  on  the  crone  the  firmer  she  stood. 
At  length,  after  a  very  violent  struggle,  Thor  began  to  lose  his 
footing,  and  was  finally  brought  down  upon  one  knee.  Utgard- 
Loki  then  told  them  to  desist,  adding  that  Thor  had  now  no 
occasion  to  ask  any  one  else  in  the  hall  to  wrestle  with  him,  and 


MYTHS  OF  THE  NORSE  GODS  385 

it  was  also  getting  late  ;  so  he  showed  Thor  and  his  companions 
to  their  seats,  and  they  passed  the  night  there  in  good  cheer. 

The  next  morning,  at  break  of  day,  Thor  and  his  companions 
dressed  themselves  and  prepared  for  their  departure.  Utgard-Loki 
ordered  a  table  to  be  set  for  them,  on  which  there  was  no  lack  of 
victuals  or  drink.  After  the  repast  Utgard-Loki  led  them  to  the 
gate  of  the  city,  and  on  parting  asked  Thor  how  he  thought  his 
journey  had  turned  out  and  whether  he  had  met  with  any  men 
stronger  than  himself.  Thor  told  him  that  he  could  not  deny  but  that 
be  had  brought  great  shame  on  himself.  "And  Vv^hat  grieves  me 
most,"  he  added,  "is  that  ye  will  call  me  a  person  of  little  worth." 

"Nay,"  said  Utgard-Loki,  "it  behooves  me  to  tell  thee  the 
truth,  now  thou  art  out  of  the  city,  which  so  long  as  I  live  and 
have  my  way  thou  shalt  never  enter  again.  And,  by  my  troth,  had 
I  known  beforehand  that  thou  hadst  so  much  strength  in  thee,  and 
wouldst  have  brought  nie  so  near  to  a  great  mishap  I  would  not 
have  suffered  thee  to  enter  this  time.  Know  then  that  I  have  all 
along  deceived  thee  by  my  illusions  ;  first  in  the  forest,  where  I 
tied  up  the  wallet  with  iron  wire  so  that  thou  couldst  not  untie  it. 
After  this  thou  gavest  me  three  blows  with  thy  mallet ;  the  first, 
though  the  least,  would  have  ended  my  days  had  it  fallen  on  me, 
but  I  slipped  aside  and  thy  blows  fell  on  the  mountain,  where  thou 
wilt  find  three  glens,  one  of  them  remarkably  deep.  These  are  the 
dints  made  by  thy  mallet.  I  have  made  use  of  similar  illusions  in 
the  contests  ye  have  had  with  my  followers.  In  the  first,  Loki,  like 
hunger  itself,  devoured  all  that  was  set  before  him,  but  Logi  was 
in  reality  nothing  else  than  Fire,  and  therefore  consumed  not  only 
the  meat  but  the  trough  which  held  it.  Hugi,  with  whom  Thialfi 
contended  in  running,  was  Thought,  and  it  was  impossible  for 
Thialfi  to  keep  pace  with  that.  When  thou,  in  thy  turn,  didst  at- 
tempt to  empty  the  horn,  thou  didst  perform,  by  my  troth,  a  deed 
so  marvelous  that  had  I  not  seen  it  myself  I  should  never  have 
believed  it.  For  one  end  of  that  horn  reached  the  sea,  which  thou 
wast  not  aware  of,  but  when  thou  comest  to  the  shore  thou  wilt 
perceive  how  much  the  sea  has  sunk  by  thy  drafts.  Thou  didst 
perform  a  feat  no  less  wonderful  by  lifting  up  the  cat,  and  to  tell 
thee  the  truth,  when  we  saw  that  one  of  his  paws  was  off  the  floor, 


386  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

we  were  all  of  us  terror-stricken,  for  what  thou  tookest  for  a  cat 
was  in  reality  the  Midgard  serpent  that  encompasseth  the  earth, 
and  he  was  so  stretched  by  thee  that  he  was  barely  long  enough  to 
inclose  it  between  his  head  and  tail.  Thy  wrestling  with  Elli  was 
also  a  most  astonishing  feat,  for  there  was  never  yet  a  man,  nor 
ever  will  be,  whom  Old  Age,  for  such  in  fact  was  Elli,  will  not 
sooner  or  later  lay  low.  But  now,  as  we  are  going  to  part,  let  me 
tell  thee  that  it  will  be  better  for  both  of  us  if  thou  never  come 
near  me  again,  for  shouldst  thou  do  so,  I  shall  again  defend  myself 
by  other  illusions,  so  that  thou  wilt  only  lose  thy  labor  and  get  no 
fame  from  the  contest  with  me." 

On  hearing  these  words  Thor,  in  a  rage,  laid  hold  of  his  mallet 
and  would  have  launched  it  at  him,  but  Utgard-Loki  had  disap- 
peared, and  when  Thor  would  have  returned  to  the  city  to  destroy 
it,  he  found  nothing  around  him  but  a  verdant  plain. 

277.  The  Sword  of  Freyr.  Freyr  also  possessed  a  wonderful 
weapon,  a  sword  which  would  of  itself  spread  a  field  with  carnage 
whenever  the  owner  desired  it.  Freyr  parted  with  this  sword,  but 
was  less  fortunate  than  Thor  and  never  recovered  it.  It  happened 
in  this  way  :  Freyr  once  mounted  Odin's  throne,  from  whence  one 
can  see  over  the  whole  universe,  and  looking  round,  saw  far  off  in 
the  giant's  kingdom  a  beautiful  maid,  at  the  sight  of  whom  he  was 
struck  with  sudden  sadness,  insomuch  that  from  that  moment  he 
could  neither  sleep  nor  drink  nor  speak.  At  last  Skirnir,  his 
messenger,  drew  his  secret  from  him,  and  undertook  to  get  him 
the  maiden  for  his  bride,  if  he  would  give  him  his  sword  as  a 
reward.  Freyr  consented  and  gave  him  the  sword,  and  Skirnir 
set  off  on  his  journey  and  obtained  the  maiden's  promise  that 
within  nine  nights  she  would  come  to  a  certain  place  and  there 
wed  Freyr.  Skirnir  having  reported  the  success  of  his  errand, 
Freyr  exclaimed  : 

"  Long  is  one  night, 
Long  are  two  nights, 
But  how  shall  I  hold  out  three? 
Shorter  hath  seemed 

A  month  to  me  oft  ' 

Than  of  this  longing  time  the  half." 


MYTHS  OF  THE  NORSE  GODS  387 

So  Freyr  obtained  Gerda,  the  most  beautiful  of  all  women,  for 
his  wife,  but  he  lost  his  sword. 

278.  The  Death  of  Balder.  Balder  the  Good,  having  been  tor- 
mented with  terrible  dreams  indicating  that  his  life  was  in  peril, 
told  them  to  the  assembled  gods,  who  resolved  to  conjure  all  things 
to  avert  from  him  the  threatened  danger.  Then  Frigga,  the  wife 
of  Odin,  exacted  an  oath  from  fire  and  water,  from  iron  and  all 
other  metals,  from  stones,  trees,  diseases,  beasts,  birds,  poisons, 
and  creeping  things,  that  none  of  them  would  do  any  harm  to 
Balder.  Odin,  not  satisfied  with  all  this,  and  feeling  alarmed  for  the 
fate  of  his  son,  determined  to  consult  the  prophetess  Angerbode,  a 
giantess,  mother  of  Fenris,  Hela,  and  the  Midgard  serpent.  She 
was  dead,  and  Odin  was  forced  to  seek  her  in  Hela's  dominions. 

But  the  other  gods,  feeling  that  what  Frigga  had  done  was  quite 
sufficient,  amused  themselves  with  using  Balder  as  a  mark,  some 
hurling  darts  at  him,  some  stones,  while  others  hewed  at  him  with 
their  swords  and  battle-axes,  for  do  what  they  would,  none  of  them 
could  harm  him.  And  this  became  a  favorite  pastime  with  them, 
and  was  regarded  as  an  honor  shown  to  Balder.  But  when  Loki 
beheld  the  scene,  he  was  sorely  vexed  that  Balder  was  not  hurt. 
Assuming,  therefore,  the  shape  of  a  woman,  he  went  to  Fensalir, 
the  mansion  of  Frigga.  That  goddess,  when  she  saw  the  pretended 
woman,  inquired  of  her  if  she  knew  what  the  gods  were  doing  at 
their  meetings.  She  replied  that  they  were  throwing  darts  and 
stones  at  Balder,  without  being  able  to  hurt  him,  "Ay,"  said  Frigga, 
"neither  stones,  nor  sticks,  nor  anything  else  can  hurt  Balder,  for 
I  have  exacted  an  oath  from  all  of  them."  "What,"  exclaimed  the 
woman,  "have  all  things  sworn  to  spare  Balder?"  "All  things," 
replied  Frigga,  "except  one  little  shrub  that  grows  on  the  eastern 
side  of  Valhalla  and  is  called  Mistletoe,  which  I  thought  too  young 
and  feeble  to  crave  an  oath  from." 

As  soon  as  Loki  heard  this  he  went  away  and,  resuming  his 
natural  shape,  cut  off  the  mistletoe  and  repaired  to  the  place  where 
the  gods  were  assembled.  There  he  found  Hdder  standing  apart, 
without  partaking  of  the  sports  on  account  of  his  blindness,  and 
going  up  to  him  said,  "Why  dost  thou  not  also  throw  something 
at  Balder  ? " 


388  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

"Because  I  am  blind,"  answered  Hoder,  "and  see  not  where 
Balder  is,  and  have,  moreover,  nothing  to  throw." 

"Come,  then,"  said  Loki,  "do  like  the  rest  and  show  honor  to 
Balder  by  throwing  this  twig  at  him,  and  I  will  direct  thy  arm 
toward  the  place  where  he  stands." 

Hoder  then  took  the  mistletoe  and,  under  the  guidance  of  Loki, 
darted  it  at  Balder,  who,  pierced  through  and  through,  fell  down 
lifeless.  Never  was  there  witnessed,  either  among  gods  or  men, 
a  more  atrocious  deed. 

So  on  the  floor  lay  Balder  dead  ;  and  round  ^ 
Lay  thickly  strewn  swords,  axes,  darts,  and  spears. 
Which  all  the  gods  in  sport  had  idly  thrown 
At  Balder,  whom  no  weapon  pierced  or  clove ; 
But  in  his  breast  stood  fixt  the  fatal  bough 
Of  mistletoe,  which  Lok  the  accuser  gave 
To  Hoder,  and  unwitting  Hoder  threw  — 
'Gainst  that  alone  had  Balder's  life  no  charm. 

And  all  the  gods  and  all  the  heroes  came, 
And  stood  round  Balder  on  the  bloody  floor, 
Weeping  and  wailing ;  and  Valhalla  rang 
Up  to  its  golden  roof  with  sobs  and  cries ; 
And  on  the  tables  stood  the  untasted  meats. 
And  in  the  horns  and  gold-rimmed  skulls  the  wine. 
And  now  would  nigTit  have  fall'n  and  found  them  yet 
Wailing ;  but  otherwise  was  Odin's  will. 

He  bade  them  not  to  spend  themselves  in  unavailing  grief,  for 

Balder,  though  the  brightest  god  of  heaven  and  best  beloved,  had 

but  met  the  doom  ordained  at  his  birth  by  the  Norns.    Rather  let 

the  funeral  pile  be  prepared,  and  let  vengeance  on  Loki  be  left  to 

Odin  himself.    So  speaking,  Odin  mounted  his  horse  Sleipnir  and 

rode  away  to  Lidskialf,  and  the  gods  in  Valhalla  returned  to  the 

feast : 

And  before  each  the  cooks,  who  served  them,  placed 

New  messes  of  the  boar  Serimnir's  flesh, 

And  the  Valkyries  crowned  their  horns  with  mead. 

So  they,  with  pent-up  hearts  and  tearless  eyes. 

Wailing  no  more,  in  silence  ate  and  drank, 

While  twilight  fell,  and  sacred  night  came  on. 

1  From  Matthew  Arnold's  Balder  Dead. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  NORSE  GODS  389 

But  the  blind  Hoder,  leaving  the  gods,  went  by  the  sea  to  Fen- 
salir,  the  house  of  Frigga,  mother  of  the  gods,  to  ask  her  what  way 
there  might  be  of  restoring  Balder  to  life  and  heaven.  Might  Hela 
perchance  surrender  Balder  if  Hoder  himself  should  take  his  place 
among  the  shades  ?  "  Nay,"  replied  Frigga,  "  no  way  is  there  but 
one,  that  the  first  god  thou  meetest  on  the  return  to  Asgard  take 
Sleipnir,  Odin's  horse,  and  ride  o'er  the  bridge  Bifrost  where  is 
Heimdall's  watch,  past  Midgard  fortress,  down  the  dark,  unknown 
road  to  Hel,  and  there  entreat  the  goddess  Hela  that  she  yield 
Balder  back  to  heaven."  Hoder,  returning  cityward,  met  Hermod, 
swiftest  of  the  gods,  — 

Nor  yet  could  Hermod  see  his  brother's  face, 
For  it  grew  dark ;  but  H cider  touched  his  arm. 
And  as  a  spray  of  honeysuckle  flowers 
Brushes  across  a  tired  traveler's  face 
Who  shuffles  through  the  deep  dew-moisten'd  dust 
On  a  May  evening,  in  the  darken'd  lanes, 
And  starts  him,  that  he  thinks  a  ghost  went  by, 
So  Hoder  brush'd  by  Hermod's  side,  and  said  : 

"  Take  Sleipnir,  Hermod,  and  set  forth  with  dawn 
To  Hela's  kingdom,  to  ask  Balder  back ; 
And  they  shall  be  thy  guides  who  have  the  power." 

He  spake,  and  brush'd  soft  by  and  disappear'd. 
And  Hermod  gazed  into  the  night,  and  said : 

"  Who  is  it  utters  through  the  dark  his  best 
So  quickly,  and  will  wait  for  no  reply  ? 
The  voice  was  like  the  unhappy  Hoder's  voice.  . 
Howbeit  I  will  see,  and  do  his  best ; 
For  there  rang  note  divine  in  that  command." 

So  speaking,  the  fleet-footed  Hermod  came 
Home,  and  lay  down  to  sleep  in  his  own  house ; 
And  all  the  gods  lay  down  in  their  own  homes. 
And  Hoder,  too,  came  home  distraught  with  grief. 
Loathing  to  meet,  at  dawn,  the  other  gods ; 
And  he  went  in,  and  shut  the  door,  and  fixt 
His  sword  upright,  and  fell  on  it,  and  died. 

But  from  the  hill  of  Lidskialf  Odin  rose, 
The  throne,  from  which  his  eye  surveys  the  world ; 
And  mounted  Sleipnir,  and  in  darkness  rode 
To  Asgard.    And  the  stars  came  out  in  heaven. 


390  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

High  over  Asgard,  to  light  home  the  king. 
But  fiercely  Odin  gallop'd,  moved  in  heart : 
And  swift  to  Asgard,  to  the  gate  he  came, 
And  terribly  the  hoofs  of  Sleipnir  rang 
Along  the  flinty  floor  of  Asgard  streets. 
And  the  gods  trembled  on  their  golden  beds 
Hearing  the  wrathful  father  coming  home  — 
For  dread,  for  like  a  whirlwind  Odin  came. 
And  to  Valhalla's  gate  he  rode,  and  left 
Sleipnir ;  and  Sleipnir  went  to  his  own  stall  •, 
And  in  Valhalla  Odin  laid  him  down. 

That  night  in  a  vision  appeared  Balder  to   Nanna  his  wife, 
comforting  her : 

"  Yes,  and  I  fain  would  altogether  ward 

Death  from  thy  head,  and  with  the  gods  in  heaven 

Prolong  thy  life,  though  not  by  thee  desired  — 

But  right  bars  this,  not  only  thy  desire. 

Yet  dreary,  Nanna,  is  the  life  they  lead 

In  that  dim  world,  in  Hela's  moldering  realm ; 

And  doleful  are  the  ghosts,  the  troops  of  dead. 

Whom  Hela  with  austere  control  presides. 

For  of  the  race  of  gods  is  no  one  there 

Save  me  alone,  and  Hela,  solemn  queen  ; 

For  all  the  nobler  souls  of  mortal  men 

On  batde  field  have  met  their  death,  and  now 

Feast  in  Valhalla,  in  my  father's  hall ; 

Only  the  inglorious  sort  are  there  below  — 

The  old,  the  cowards,  and  the  weak  are  there, 

Men  spent  by  sickness,  or  obscure  decay. 

But  even  there,  O  Nanna,  we  might  find 

Some  solace  in  each  other's  look  and  speech. 

Wandering  together  through  that  gloomy  world, 

And  talking  of  the  life  we  led  in  heaven. 

While  we  yet  lived,  among  the  other  gods." 

He  spake,  and  straight  his  lineaments  began 
To  fade ;  and  Nanna  in  her  sleep  stretch'd  out 
Her  arms  towards  him  with  a  cry,  but  he 
Mournfully  shook  his  head  and  disappear'd. 
And  as  the  woodman  sees  a  little  smoke 
Hang  in  the  air,  afield,  and  disappear, 
So  Balder  faded  in  the  night  away. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  NORSE  GODS  391 

And  Nanna  on  her  bed  sank  back ;  but  then 
Frea,  the  mother  of  the  gods,  with  stroke 
Painless  and  swift,  set  free  her  airy  soul, 
Which  took,  on  Balder's  track,  the  way  below ; 
And  instantly  the  sacred  morn  appear'd. 

With  the  morn  Hermod,  mounting  Sleipnir,  set  out  on  his  mis- 
sion. For  the  space  of  nine  days  and  as  many  nights  he  rode 
through  deep  glens  so  dark  that  he  could  not  discern  anything, 
until  he  arrived  at  the  river  Gyoll,  which  he  passed  over  on  a 
bridge  covered  with  glittering  gold.  The  maiden  who  kept  the 
bridge  asked  him  his  name  and  lineage,  telling  him  that  the  day 
before  five  bands  of  dead  persons  had  ridden  over  the  bridge,  and 
did  not  shake  it  as  much  as  he  alone.  "  But,"  she  added,  "  thou 
hast  not  death's  hue  on  thee ;  why  then  ridest  thou  here  on  the 
way  to  Hel  .''  " 

"  I  ride  to  Hel,"  answered  Hermod,  "  to  seek  Balder.  Hast  thou 
perchance  seen  him  pass  this  way  ?" 

She  replied,  "  Balder  hath  ridden  over  Gyoll's  bridge,  and  yon- 
der lieth  the  way  he  took  to  the  abodes  of  death." 

Hermod  pursued  his  journey  until  he  came  to  the  barred  gates 
of  Hel.  Here  he  alighted,  girthed  his  saddle  tighter,  and  remount- 
ing clapped  both  spurs  to  his  horse,  which  cleared  the  gate  by  a 
tremendous  leap  without  touching  it.  Hermod  then  rode  on  to  the 
palace,  where  he  found  his  brother  Balder  occupying  the  most  dis- 
tinguished seat  in  the  hall,  and  passed  the  night  in  his  company. 
The  next  morning  he  besought  Hela  to  let  Balder  ride  home  with 
him,  assuring  her  that  nothing  but  lamentations  were  to  be  heard 
among  the  gods.  Hela  answered  that  it  should  now  be  tried  whether 
Balder  was  so  beloved  as  he  was  said  to  be.  "  If,  therefore,"  she 
added,  "all  things  in  the  world,  both  living  and  lifeless,  weep  for 
him,  then  shall  he  return  to  life  ;  but  if  any  one  thing  speak  against 
him  or  refuse  to  weep,  he  shall  be  kept  in  Hel." 

Hermod  then  rode  back  to  Asgard  and  gave  an  account  of  all 
he  had  heard  and  witnessed. 

The  gods  upon  this  dispatched  messengers  throughout  the  world 
to  beg  everything  to  weep  in  order  that  Balder  might  be  delivered 
from  Hel.    All  things  very  willingly  complied  with  this  request, 


392  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

both  men  and  every  other  living  being,  as  well  as  earths,  and  stones, 
and  trees,  and  metals,  just  as  we  have  all  seen  these  things  weep 
when  they  are  brought  from  a  cold  place  into  a  hot  one. 
Then  the  messengers  returned, — 

.   .   .  And  they  rode  home  together,  through  the  wood 
Of  Jarnvid,  which  to  east  of  Midgard  lies 
Bordering  the  giants,  where  the  trees  are  iron ; 
There  in  the  wood  before  a  cave  they  came, 
Where  sate  in  the  cave's  mouth  a  skinny  hag. 
Toothless  and  old ;  she  gibes  the  passers-by. 
Thok  is  she  called,  but  now  Lok  wore  her  shape ; 
She  greeted  them  the  first,  and  laughed  and  said : 
"  Ye  gods,  good  lack,  is  it  so  dull  in  heaven 
That  ye  come  pleasuring  to  Thok's  iron  wood  ? 
Lovers  of  change,  ye  are,  fastidious  sprites. 
Look,  as  in  some  boor's  yard,  a  sweet-breath'd  cow, 
Whose  manger  is  stuffed  full  of  good  fresh  hay, 
Snuffs  at  it  daintily,  and  stoops  her  head 
To  chew  the  straw,  her  litter  at  her  feet  — 
So  ye  grow  squeamish,  gods,  and  sniff  at  heaven  !  " 

She  spake,  but  Hermod  answered  her  and  said, 
"  Thok,  not  for  gibes  we  come ;  we  come  for  tears. 
Balder  is  dead,  and  Hela  holds  her  prey. 
But  will  restore,  if  all  things  give  him  tears. 
Begrudge  not  thine !  to  all  was  Balder  dear." 

Then,  with  a  louder  laugh,  the  hag  replied : 
"Is  Balder  dead?  and  do  ye  come  for  tears.? 
Thok  with  dry  eyes  will  weep  o'er  Balder's  pyre. 
Weep  him  all  other  things,  if  weep  they  will  — 
I  weep  him  not!  let  Hela  keep  her  prey." 

She  spake,  and  to  the  cavern's  depth  she  fled. 
Mocking ;  and  Hermod  knew  their  toil  was  vain.^ 

So  was  Balder  prevented  from  returning  to  Asgard. 

279.  The  Funeral  of  Balder.  The  gods  took  up  the  dead  body 
and  bore  it  to  the  seashore,  where  stood  Balder's  ship  Hringham, 
which  passed  for  the  largest  in  the  world.  Balder's  dead  body  was 
put  on  the  funeral  pile,  on  board  the  ship  ;  and  the  body  of  Nanna 
was  burned  on  the  same  pile  with  her  husband's.    There  was  a 

1  From  Matthew  Arnold's  Balder  Dead. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  NORSE  GODS 


vast  concourse  of  various  kinds  of  people  at  Balder's  obsequies. 
First  came  Odin  accompanied  by  Frigga,  the  Valkyries,  and  his 
ravens  ;  then  Freyr  in  his  car  drawn  by  Gullinbursti,  the  boar ; 
Heimdall  rode  his  horse  Gulltopp,  and  Freya  drove  in  her  chariot 
drawn  by  cats.  There  were  also  a  great  many  Frost  giants  and 
giants  of  the  mountain  present.  Balder's  horse  was  led  to  the  pile 
fully  caparisoned,  and 
was  consumed  in  the 
same  flames  with  his 
master. 

But  Loki  did  not 
escape  his  merited 
punishment.  When  he 
saw  how  wroth  the  gods 
were,  he  fled  to  the 
mountain  and  there 
built  himself  a  hut  with 
four  doors,  so  that  he 
could  see  every  ap- 
proaching danger.  He 
invented  a  net  to  catch 
the  fishes,  such  as  fish- 
ermen have  used  since 
his  time.  But  Odin 
found  out  his  hiding 
place  and  the  gods  as- 
sembled to  take  him. 
He,  seeing  this,  changed 
himself  into  a  salmon 
and  lay  hid  among  the  stones  of  the  brook 


Fig.  187.    Loki  and  Siguna 
From  the  painting  by  Gebhardt 

But  the  jrods  took 


his  net  and  dragged  the  brook,  and  Loki,  finding  he  must  be 
caught,  tried  to  leap  over  the  net;  but  Thor  caught  him  by  the 
tail,  and  compressed  it  so  that  salmon  ever  since  have  had  that 
part  remarkably  fine  and  thin.  They  bound  him  with  chains  and 
suspended  a  serpent  over  his  head,  whose  venom  falls  upon  his 
face  drop  by  drop.  His  wife,  Siguna,  sits  by  his  side  and  catches 
the  drops  as  they  fall,  in  a  cup ;  but  when  she  carries  it  away  to 


394  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

empty  it,  the  venom  falls  upon  Loki,  which  makes  him  howl  with 
horror  and  writhe  so  that  the  whole  earth  shakes. 

280.  The  Elves.  The  Edda  mentions  another  class  of  beings, 
inferior  to  the  gods,  but  still  possessed  of  great  power ;  these 
were  the  Elves.  The  white  spirits,  or  Elves  of  Light,  were  exceed- 
ingly fair,  more  brilliant  than  the  sun,  and  clad  in  garments  of  a 
delicate  and  transparent  texture.  They  loved  the  light,  were  kindly 
disposed  to  mankind,  and  generally  appeared  as  fair  and  lovely 
children.  Their  country  was  called  Elfheim,  and  was  the  domain 
of  Freyr,  in  whose  sunlight  they  always  sported. 

The  black  elves,  ugly,  long-nosed  dwarfs,  of  a  dirty  brown  color, 
appeared  only  at  night.  They  avoided  the  sun  as  their  most  deadly 
enemy,  because  his  beams  changed  them  immediately  into  stones. 
Their  language  was  the  echo  of  solitudes,  and  their  dwelling  places 
subterranean  caves  and  clefts.  They  were  supposed  to  have  come 
into  existence  as  maggots  produced  by  the  decaying  flesh  of  Ymir's 
body.  They  were  afterwards  endowed  by  the  gods  with  a  human 
form  and  great  understanding.  They  were  particularly  distinguished 
for  a  knowledge  of  the  mysterious  powers  of  nature,  and  for  the 
runes  which  they  carved  and  explained.  They  were  the  most  skill- 
ful artificers  of  all  created  beings,  and  worked  in  metals  and  in 
wood.  Among  their  most  noted  works  were  Thor's  hammer,  and 
the  ship  Skidbladiiir,  which  they  gave  to  Freyr.  This  vessel  was  so 
large  that  it  could  contain  all  the  deities  wdth  their  war  and  house- 
hold implements,  but  so  skillfully  was  it  wrought  that  when  folded 
together  it  could  be  put  into  a  side  pocket. 

281.  Ragnarok.  It  was  a  firm  belief  of  the  Northern  nations 
that  a  time  would  come  when  all  the  visible  creation,  the  gods  of 
Valhalla  and  Niflheim,  the  inhabitants  of  Jotunheim,  Elfheim,  and 
Midgard,  together  with  their  habitations,  would  be  destroyed.  The 
fearful  day  of  destruction  will  not  however  be  without  warning. 
First  will  come  a  triple  winter,  during  which  snow  will  fall  from 
the  four  corners  of  the  heavens,  the  frost  be  severe,  the  wind 
piercing,  the  weather  tempestuous",  and  the  sun  impart  no  gladness. 
Three  such  winters  will  pass  without  being  tempered  by  a  single 
summer.  Three  other  like  winters  will  follow,  during  which  war 
and  discord  will  spread  over  the  universe.    The  earth  itself  will  be 


MYTHS  OF  THE  NORSE  GODS  395 

afraid  and  begin  to  tremble,  the  sea  leave  its  basin,  the  heavens 
tear  asunder ;  men  will  perish  in  great  numbers,  and  the  eagles  of 
the  air  feast  upon  their  still  quivering  bodies.  The  wolf  Fenris  will 
now  break  his  bands,  the  Midgard  serpent  rise  out  of  his  bed  in 
the  sea,  and  Loki,  released  from  his  bonds,  will  join  the  enemies 
of  the  gods.  Amidst  the  general  devastation  the  sons  of  Muspel- 
heim  will  rush  forth  under  their  leader  Surter,  before  and  behind 
whom  are  flames  and  burning  fire.  Onward  they  ride  over  Bifrost, 
the  rainbow  bridge,  which  breaks  under  the  horses'  hoofs.  But 
they,  disregarding  its  fall,  direct  their  course  to  the  battle  field 
called  Vigrid.  Thither  also  repair  the  wolf  Fenris,  the  Midgard 
serpent,  Loki,  with  all  the  followers  of  Hela,  and  the  Frost  giants. 

Heimdall  now  stands  up  and  sounds  the  Giallar  horn  to  assem- 
ble the  gods  and  heroes  for  the  contest.  The  gods  advance,  led  on 
by  Odin,  who,  engaging  the  wolf  Fenris,  falls  a  victim  to  the  mon- 
ster. Fenris  is,  in  turn,  slain  by  Vidar,  Odin's  son.  Thor  wins 
great  renown  by  killing  the  Midgard  serpent,  but,  recoiling,  falls 
dead,  suffocated  with  the  venom  which  the  dying  monster  vomits 
over  him.  Loki  and  Heimdall  meet  and  fight  till  they  both  are 
slain.  The  gods  and  their  enemies  having  fallen  in  battle,  Surter, 
who  has  killed  Freyr,  darts  fire  and  flames  over  the  world,  and  the 
universe  is  consumed.  The  sun  grows  dim,  the  earth  sinks  into 
the  ocean,  the  stars  fall  from  heaven,  and  time  is  no  more. 

After  this  Alfadur  (not  Odin  but  the  Almighty)  will  cause  a  new 
heaven  and  a  new  earth  to  arise  out  of  the  sea.  The  new  earth, 
filled  with  abundant  supplies,  will  produce  its  fruits  without  labor 
or  care.  Wickedness  and  misery  will  no  more  be  known,  but  the 
gods  and  men  will  live  happily  together. 

This  twilight  of  the  gods  is  aptly  described  in  a  conversation 
held  between  Balder  and  Hermod,  after  Hermod  has  a  second 
time  ridden  to  Hel : 

And  the  fleet-footed  Hermod  made  reply  :  ^  — ■ 
"  Thou  hast  then  all  the  solace  death  allows, 
Esteem  and  function ;  and  so  far  is  well. 
Yet  here  thou  liest,  Balder,  underground, 
Rusting  for  ever ;  and  the  years  roll  on, 

1  From  Matthew  Arnold's  Balder  Dead. 


39^ 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

The  generations  pass,  the  ages  grow, 

And  bring  us  nearer  to  the  final  day 

When  from  the  south  shall  march  the  fiery  band 

And  cross  the  bridge  of  heaven,  with  Lok  for  guide, 

And  Fenris  at  his  heel  with  broken  chain  ; 

While  from  the  east  the  giant  Rymer  steers 

His  ship,  and  the  great  serpent  makes  to  land ; 

And  all  are  marshal'd  in  one  flaming  square 

Against  the  gods,  upon  the  plains  of  heaven. 

I  mourn  thee,  that  thou  canst  not  help  us  then." 

He  spake ;  but  Balder  answered  him,  and  said  :  — 
"  Mourn  not  for  me  !    Mourn,  Hermod,  for  the  gods ; 
Mourn  for  the  men  on  earth,  the  gods  in  heaven, 
Who  live,  and  with  their  eyes  shall  see  that  day ! 
The  day  will  come,  when  fall  shall  Asgard's  towers, 
And  Odin,  and  his  sons,  the  seed  of  Heaven ; 
But  what  were  I,  to  save  them  in  that  hour? 
If  strength  might  save  them,  could  not  Odin  save, 
My  father,  and  his  pride,  the  warrior  Thor, 
Vidar  the  silent,  the  impetuous  Tyr  ? 
I,  what  were  I,  when  these  can  nought  avail.'' 
Yet,  doubtless,  when  the  day  of  battle  comes. 
And  the  two  hosts  are  marshal'd,  and  in  heaven 
The  golden-crested  cock  shall  sound  alarm. 
And  his  black  brother-bird  from  hence  reply. 
And  bucklers  clash,  and  spears  begin  to  pour  — 
Longing  will  stir  within  my  breast,  though  vain. 
But  not  to  me  so  grievous  as,  I  know, 
To  other  gods  it  were,  is  my  enforced 
Absence  from  fields  where  I  could  nothing  aid ; 
For  I  am  long  since  weary  of  your  storm 
Of  carnage,  and  find,  Herrhod,  in  your  life 
Something  too  much  of  war  and  broils,  which  make 
Life  one  perpetual  fight,  a  bath  of  blood. 
Mine  eyes  are  dizzy  with  the  arrowy  hail ; 
Mine  ears  are  stunn'd  with  blows,  and  sick  for  calm. 
Inactive,  therefore,  let  me  lie  in  gloom, 
Unarm'd,  inglorious ;   I  attend  the  course 
Of  ages,  and  my  late  return  to  light, 
In  times  less  alien  to  a  spirit  mild. 
In  new-recover'd  seats,  the  happier  day." 

He  spake ;  and  the  fleet  Hermod  thus  replied :  —. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  NORSE  GODS  397 

"  Brother,  what  seats  are  these,  what  happier  day  ? 
Tell  me,  that  I  may  ponder  it  when  gone." 

And  the  ray-crowned  Balder  answered  him  :  — 
"  Far  to  the  south,  beyond  the  blue,  there  spreads 
Another  heaven,  the  boundless  —  no  one  yet 
Hath  reach'd  it ;  there  hereafter  shall  arise 
The  second  Asgard,  with  another  name. 
Thither,  when  o'er  this  present  earth  and  heavens 
The  tempest  of  the  latter  days  hath  swept, 
And  they  from  sight  have  disappear'd  and  sunk. 
Shall  a  small  remnant  of  the  gods  repair ; 
Hoder  and  I  shall  join  them  from  the  grave. 
There  reassembling  we  shall  see  emerge 
From  the  bright  ocean  at  our  feet  an  earth 
More  fresh,  more  verdant  than  the  last,  with  fruits 
Self-springing,  and  a  seed  of  man  preserved. 
Who  then  shall  live  in  peace,  as  now  in  war. 
But  we  in  heaven  shall  find  again  with  joy 
The  ruin'd  palaces  of  Odin,  seats 
Familiar,  halls  where  we  have  supp'd  of  old, 
Reenter  them  with  wonder,  never  fill 
Our  eyes  with  gazing,  and  rebuild  with  tears. 
And  we  shall  tread  once  more  the  well-known  plain 
Of  Ida,  and  among  the  grass  shall  find 
The  golden  dice  wherewith  we  played  of  yore  ; 
And  that  shall  bring  to  mind  the  former  life 
And  pastime  of  the  gods  —  the  wise  discourse 
Of  Odin,  the  delights  of  other  days. 

0  Hermod,  pray  that  thou  may'st  join  us  then  ! 
Such  for  the  future  is  my  hope ;  meanwhile, 

1  rest  the  thrall  of  Hela,  and  endure 

Death,  and  the  gloom  which  round  me  even  now 
Thickens,  and  to  inner  gulf  recalls. 
Farewell,  for  longer  speech  is  not  allow'd." 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

MYTHS  OF  NORSE  AND  OLD  GERMAN  HEROES 

282.  The  Saga  of  the  Volsungs.^  Sigi,  son  of  Odin,  was  a 
mighty  king  of  the  Huns  whom  Odin  loved  and  prospered  exceed- 
ingly. Rerir,  also,  the  son  of  Sigi,  was  a  man  of  valor  and  one  who 
got  lordship  and  land  unto  himself  ;  but  neither  Sigi  nor  Rerir  were 
to  compare  with  Volsung,  who  ruled  over  Hunland  after  his  father 
Rerir  went  home  to  Odin. 

To  Volsung  were  born  ten  sons  and  one  daughter,  —  Signy  by 
name  ;  and  of  the  sons  Sigimmd  was  the  eldest  and  the  most 
valiant.  And  the  Volsungs  abode  in  peace  till  Siggeir,  king  of 
Gothland,  came  wooing  Signy,  who,  though  loath  to  accept  him, 
was,  by  her  father's  desire,  betrothed  to  him. 

Now  on  the  night  of  the  wedding  great  fires  were  made  in  the 
hall  of  the  Volsungs,  and  in  the  midst  stood  Branstock,  a  great  oak 
tree,  about  which  the  hall  had  been  built,  and  the  limbs  of  the  tree 
spread  over  the  roof  of  the  hall ;  and  round  about  Branstock  they 
sat  and  feasted,  and  sang  of  ancient  heroes  and  heard  the  music 
of  the  harp  that  went  from  hand  to  hand. 

But  e'en  as  men's  hearts  were  hearkening  some  heard  the  thunder  pass  ^ 

O'er  the  cloudless  noontide  heaven ;  and  some  men  turned  about 

And  deemed  that  in  the  doorway  they  heard  a  man  laugh  out. 

Then  into  the  Volsung  dwelling  a  mighty  man  there  strode, 

One-eyed  and  seeming  ancient,  yet  bright  his  visage  glowed ; 

Cloud-blue  was  the  hood  upon  him,  and  his  kirtle  gleaming-gray 

As  the  latter  morning  sun-dog  when  the  storm  is  on  the  way ; 

A  bill  he  bore  on  his  shoulder,  whose  mighty  ashen  beam 

Burnt  bright  with  the  flame  of  the  sea,  and  the  blended  silver's  gleam. 

And  such  was  the  guise  of  his  raiment  as  the  Volsung  elders  had  told 

Was  borne  by  their  fathers'  fathers,  and  the  first  that  warred  in  the  wold. 

1  For  the  Sagas,  see  §  300 ;  and  for  translations,  etc.,  see  §  282  of  the  Commentary. 

2  The  extracts  in  verse  are  from  William  Morris'  Sigurd  the  Volsung. 


MYTHS  OF  NORSE  AND  OLD  GERMAN  HEROES      399 

So  strode  he  to  the  Branstock,  nor  greeted  any  lord, 
But  forth  from  his  cloudy  raiment  he  drew  a  gleaming  sword, 
And  smote  it  deep  in  the  tree-bole,  and  the  wild  hawks  overhead 
Laughed  'neath  the  naked  heaven  as  at  last  he  spake  and  said : 
"  Earls  of  the  Goths,  and  Volsungs,  abiders  on  the  earth, 
Lo  there  amid  the  Branstock  a  blade  of  plenteous  worth ! 
The  folk  of  the  war-wand's  forgers  wrought  never  better  steel 
Since  first  the  burg  of  heaven  uprose  for  man-folk's  weal. 
Now  let  the  man  among  you  whose  heart  and  hand  may  shift 
To  pluck  it  from  the  oak-wood  e'en  take  it  for  my  gift. 
Then  ne'er,  but  his  own  heart  falter,  its  point  and  edge  shall  fail 
Until  the  night's  beginning  and  the  ending  of  the  tale. 
Be  merry,  Earls  of  the  Goth-folk,  O  Volsung  Sons  be  wise, 
And  reap  the  battle-acre  that  ripening  for  you  lies : 
For  they  told  me  in  the  wild  wood,  I  heard  on  the  mountain-side 
That  the  shining  house  of  heaven  is  wrought  exceeding  wide. 
And  that  there  the  Early-comers  shall  have  abundant  rest 
While  Earth  grows  scant  of  great  ones,  and  fadeth  from  its  best, 
And  fadeth  from  its  midward,  and  groweth  poor  and  vile :  — 
All  hail  to  thee.  King  Volsung  !  farewell  for  a  little  while  !  " 

So  sweet  his  speaking  sounded,  so  wise  his  words  did  seem 
That  moveless  all  men  sat  there,  as  in  a  happy  dream 
We  stir  not  lest  we  waken  ;  but  there  his  speech  had  end 
And  slowly  down  the  hall-floor,  and  outward  did  he  wend ; 
And  none  would  cast  him  a  question  or  follow  on  his  ways, 
For  they  "knew  that  the  gift  was  Odin's,  a  sword  for  the  world  to  praise. 

Then  all  made  trial,  Siggeir  and  his  earls,  and  Volsung  and  his 
people,  to  draw  forth  the  sword  from  Branstock,  but  with  no  suc- 
cess, till  Sigmund,  laying  his  hand  carelessly  on  the  precious  hilt, 
drew  forth  the  naked  blade  as  though  it  were  loose  in  the  oak. 
Whereupon  Siggeir  offered  money  for  the  sword,  but  Sigmund 
scorned  the  offer. 

But  in  time  Siggeir  had  his  vengeance.  Inviting  King  Volsung 
and  his  sons  to  Gothland,  he  fell  upon  them,  slew  the  king,  and 
suffered  the  sons,  fastened  under  a  log,  to  be  devoured  in  succes- 
sion by  a  she-wolf  —  all  but  Sigmund,  who  through  the  wile  of 
his  sister  Signy  was  rescued.  He,  driven  to  the  life  of  an  outlaw, 
sought  means  to  avenge  his  father,  and  Signy,  on  her  part,  strove 
to  aid  him,  —  without  avail,   however,   till   Sinfiotli,   the   son  of 


400  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

herself  and  Sigmund,  was  grown  to  manhood.  This  youth  bore 
Sigmund  company.  For  a  season,  as  wolves,  they  scoured  the 
woods  ;  finally  resuming  the  form  of  men,  they  slew  the  children 
of  Siggeir  and  burned  him  in  his  hall.  Signy,  having  helped  to 
avenge  her  father,  died  with  her  husband. 

Sigmund,  thereupon,  became  king,  and  took  to  himself  a  wife. 
But  she,  suffering  injur}^  at  the  hands  of  Sinfiotli,  poisoned  him 
with  a  horn  of  ale.  Then  Sigmund  sorrowed  nigh  to  death  over 
his  son,  and  drove  away  that  queen,  and  soon  after  she  died.  He 
then  married  Hiordis  the  fair  ;  but  before  long,  doing  battle  against 
Lyngi,  the  son  of  Hunding,  —  a  chieftain  who  also  had  loved  the 
fair  Hiordis,  — he  got  his  death  wound  : 

For  lo,  through  the  hedge  of  the  war-shafts  a  mighty  man  there  came, 
One-eyed  and  seeming  ancient,  but  his  visage  shone  like  flame  ; 
Gleaming-gray  was  his  kirtle,  and  his  hood  was  cloudy-blue  ; 
And  he  bore  a  mighty  twibil,  as  he  waded  the  fight-sheaves  through, 
And  stood  face  to  face  with  Sigmund,  and  upheaved  the  bill  to  smite. 
Once  more  round  the  head  of  the  Volsung  fierce  glittered  the  Branstock's  light, 
The  sword  that  came  from  Odin  ;  and  Sigmund's  cry  once  more 
Rang  out  to  the  very  heavens  above  the  din  of  war. 
Then  clashed  the  meeting  edges  with  Sigmund's  latest  stroke, 
And  in  shivering  shards  fell  earthward  that  fear  of  worldly  folk. 
But  changed  were  the  eyes  of  Sigmund,  and  the  war-wrath  left  his  face ; 
For  that  gray-clad  mighty  helper  was  gone,  and  in  his  place 
Drave  on  the  unbroken  spear-wood  'gainst  the  Volsung's  empty  hands : 
And  there  they  smote  down  Sigmund,  the  wonder  of  all  lands, 
On  the  foemen,  on  the  death-heap  his  deeds  had  piled  that  day. 

To  Hiordis,  after  Sigmund's  death,  was  born  Sigiird,  like  whom 
was  never  man  for  comeliness  and  valor  and  great-heartedness  and 
might.  He  was  the  greatest  of  the  Volsungs.  His  foster-father  was 
Regin,  the  son  of  Rodmar,  a  blacksmith,  who  taught  him  the  lore 
of  runes  and  many  tongues  ;  and,  by  means  of  a  'sXory  of  ancient 
wrongs,  incited  him  to  the  destruction  of  the  dragon  Fafnir.  For 
Regin  told  that  while  the  gods,  Odin  and  Hoenir,  were  wandering 
with  Loki  near  Rodmar's  house,  Loki  slew  one  of  Rodmar's  sons. 
Otter.  Whereupon  Rodmar  demanded  that  the  gods  should  fill 
the  Otter-skin  with  gold  and  cover  it  with  gold.    Now  Loki,  being 


MYTHS  OF  NORSE  AND  OLD  GERMAN  HEROES      401 

sent  to  procure  the  gold,  caught  Andvari  the  dwarf,  and  from  him 
procured  by  force  a  hoard  of  the  precious  metal  and  with  it  a  magic 
ring,  whose  touch  bred  gold.  But  Andvari  cursed  the  ring  and 
the  gold  and  all  that  might  possess  either.  The  gods  forthwith 
filled  Otter  with  the  dwarf's  gold,  and  surrendered  both  gold  and 
ring  to  Rodmar.  Immediately  the  curse  began  to  work.  Fafnir, 
brother  of  Regin  and  Otter,  slew  Rodmar  and  seized  the  treasure 
and,  assuming  a  dragon's  form,  brooded  upon  the  hoard.  With 
this  tale  Regin  egged  on  Sigurd  to  the  undoing  of  Fafnir.  He 
welded  him,  too,  a  resistless  sword  out  of  the  shards  of  Sigmund's 
sword.  Gram  (the  wrath).  Then  Sigurd  swore  that  he  would  slay 
the  dragon.  But  first,  riding  on  his  horse,  Greyfell,  of  the  blood 
of  Odin's  Sleipnir,  he  avenged  upon  the  sons  of  Hunding  the 
death  of  his  father.  This  done,  Sigurd  rode  to  Glistenheath  and 
slew  Fafnir,  the  dragon,  and  eating  of  his  heart,  learned  the  lan- 
guage of  the  birds  ;  and  at  their  advice  he  slew  Regin  also,  who 
plotted  against  him. 

So,  setting  the  ring  of  Andvari  on  his  finger  and  bearing  the 
gold  before  him  on  his  horse,  Greyfell,  Sigurd  comes  to  the  Hill 
of  Hindfell : 

And  sitteth  awhile  on  Greyfell  on  the  marvelous  thing  to  gaze : 
For  lo,  the  side  of  Hindfell  inwrapped  by  the  fervent  blaze, 
And  naught  'twixt  earth  and  heaven  save  a  world  of  flickering  flame, 
And  a  hurrying,  shifting  tangle,  where  the  dark  rents  went  and  came  .   .   . 
Now  Sigurd  turns  in  his  saddle,  and  the  hilt  of  the  Wrath  he  shifts, 
And  draws  a  girth  the  tighter ;  then  the  gathered  reins  he  lifts, 
And  crieth  aloud  to  Greyfell,  and  rides  at  the  wildfire's  heart ; 
But  the  white  wall  wavers  before  him  and  the  flame-flood  rusheth  apart, 
And  high  o'er  his  head  it  riseth,  and  wide  and  wild  is  its  roar 
As  it  beareth  the  mighty  tidings  to  the  very  heavenly  floor ; 
But  he  rideth  through  its  roaring  as  the  warrior  rides  the  rye, 
When  it  bows  with  the  wind  of  the  summer  and  the  hid  spears  draw 

anigh ; 
The  white  flame  licks  his  raiment  and  sweeps  through  Greyfell's  mane, 
And  bathes  both  hands  of  Sigurd  and  the  hilts  of  Fafnir's  bane, 
And  winds  about  his  war-helm  and  mingles  with  his  hair, 
But  naught  his  raiment  dusketh  or  dims  his  glittering  gear ;  — 
Then  it  falls  and  fades  and  darkens  till  all  seems  left  behind, 
And  dawn  and  the  blaze  is  swallowed  in  mid-mirk  stark  and  blind,  .  .  . 


402  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Then  before  him  Sigurd  sees  a  shield-hung  castle,  surmounted 
by  a  golden  buckler,  instead  of  a  banner,  which  rings  against  the 
flagstaff.  And  he  enters  and  finds  the  form  of  one  asleep,  in  armor 
cap-a-pie. 

So  he  draweth  the  helm  from  the  head,  and,  lo,  the  brow  snow-white, 
And  the  smooth  unfurrowed  cheeks,  and  the  wise  lips  breathing  light ; 
And  the  face  of  a  woman  it  is,  and  the  fairest  that  ever  was  born. 
Shown  forth  to  the  empty  heavens  and  the  desert  world  forlorn  : 
But  he  looketh,  and  loveth  her  sore,  and  he  longeth  her  spirit  to  move, 
And  awaken  her  heart  to  the  world,  that  she  may  behold  him  and  love. 
And  he  toucheth  her  breast  and  her  hands,  and  he  loveth  her  passing  sore ; 
And  he  saith,  "Awake  !  I  am  Sigurd,"  but  she  moveth  never  the  more.  .  .  . 

Then  with  his  bright  blade  Sigurd  rends  the  ring-knit  mail  that 
incloses  her,  "  till  naught  but  the  rippling  linen  is  wrapping  her 
about,  "-^ 

Then  a  flush  cometh  over  her  visage  and  a  sigh  upheaveth  her  breast. 

And  her  eyelids  quiver  and  open,  and  she  wakeneth  into  rest ; 

Wide-eyed  on  the  dawning  she  gazeth,  too  glad  to  change  or  smile, 

And  but  little  moveth  her  body,  nor  speaketh  she  yet  for  a  while ; 

And  yet  kneels  Sigurd,  moveless,  her  wakening  speech  to  heed. 

While  soft  the  waves  of  the  daylight  o'er  the  starless  heavens  speed, 

And  the  gleaming  vines  of  the  Shield-burg  yet  bright  and  brighter  grow, 

And  the  thin  moon  hangeth  her  horns  dead-white  in  the  golden  glow. 

Then  she  turned  and  gazed  on  Sigurd,  and  her  eyes  met  the  Volsung's  eyes. 

And  mighty  and  measureless  now  did  the  tide  of  his  love  arise. 

For  their  longing  had  met  and  mingled,  and  he  knew  of  her  heart  that  she 

loved. 
As  she  spake  unto  nothing  but  him  and  her  lips  with  the  speech-flood  moved. 

Br}'nhild,  it  was,  —  the  Valkyrie,  —  who  long  time  had  lain  in 
that  enchanted  sleep  that  Odin,  her  father,  had  poured  over  her, 
dooming  her  to  mortal  awakening  and  to  mortal  love,  for  the  evil 
she  had  wrought  of  old  when  she  espoused  the  cause  in  battle  of 
those  whom  the  Norns  had  predestined  to  death.  Her  might  none 
but  the  fearless  awaken  ;  and  her  had  Sigurd  awakened  ;  and  she 
loved  him,  for  he  was  without  fear  and  godlike.  And  she  taught 
him  many  wise  sayings  ;  and  they  plighted  troth,  one  to  the  other, 
both  then  and  again  ;  and  Sigurd  gave  her  the  ring  of  Andvari, 


MYTHS  OF  NORSE  AND  OLD  GERMAN  HEROES   403 

But  they  were  not  destined  to  dwell  together  in  wedlock,  and 
Brynhild,  foreseeing  the  future,  knew  even  this, 

Sigurd  was  to  wed  with  another  than  Brynhild,  and  it  fell  in 
this  wise.  In  the  land  of  the  Nibelungs  (Niblungs,  Nibelungen) 
dwelt  Gudrun,  daughter  of  Giuki,  the  Nibelung  king.  And  Gudrun 
dreamed  a  dream  in  which  a  fair  hawk  feathered  with  feathers  of 
gold  alighted  upon  her  wrist.  She  went  to  Brynhild  for  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  dream.  "  The  hawk,"  said  Bpy^nhild,  "  is  Sigurd." 
And  so  it  came  to  pass.  Sigurd,  visiting  the  court  of  the  Nibelungs, 
was  kindly  entreated  by  King  Giuki  and  his  three  sons,  Gunnar, 
Hogni,  and  Guttorm  ;  and  he  performed  deeds  of  valor  such  that 
they  honored  him.  But  after  many  days,  Grimhild,  the  mother 
of  Gudrun,  administered  to  Sigurd  a  magic  potion  that  removed 
from  him  all  memory  of  Brynhild.  So  Sigurd  loved  and  wedded 
the  fair  Gudrun,  Indeed  he  soon  joined  others  in  urging  his 
wife's  brother  Gunnar,  a  doughty  warrior,  to  sue  for  the  hand  of 
Brynhild  herself.  But  Brynhild  would  have  no  one  that  could 
not  ride  through  the  flames  drawn  up  around  her  hall.  After 
Gunnar  had  made  two  unsuccessful  attempts,  Sigurd,  assuming 
the  form  of  King  Gunnar,  mounted  Greyfell  and  rode  for  the 
second  time  through  the  flames  of  Hindfell,  Then,  still  wearing 
the  semblance  of  Gunnar,  he  gained  the  consent  of  Brynhild  to 
the  union,  and  exchanged  rings  with  her,  —  she  giving  him 
none  other  than  the  ancient  ring  of  Andvari  back  again.  But 
even  this  did  not  recall  to  Sigurd's  memory  his  former  ride  and 
his  former  love.  Returning  to  the  land  of  the  Nibelungs,  he 
announced  the  success  of  his  undertaking  and  told  all  things  to 
Gudrun,  giving  her  the  fatal  ring  that  he  had  regained  from 
Brynhild, 

In  ten  days  came  Brynhild  by  agreement  to  the  Hall  of  the 
Nibelungs,  and  though  she  knew  well  the  deceit  that  had  been 
practiced  on  her,  she  made  no  sign  ;  nay,  was  wedded,  according 
to  her  promise,  to  King  Gunnar,  But  as  they  sat  at  the  wedding- 
feast,  the  charm  of  Grimhild  was  outworn,  —  Sigurd  looked  upon 
Gunnar's  bride  and  knew  the  Brynhild  of  old,  the  Valkyrie,  whom 
he  had  loved  ;  "and  Br)'nhild's  face  drew  near  him  with  eyes 
grown  stem  and  strange." 


^04  'i'HE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

But,  apparently,  all  went  well  till  the  young  queens,  one  day 
bathing  in  the  Water  of  the  Nibelungs,  fell  into  contention  on  a 
matter  of  privilege.  Brynhild  claimed  precedence  in  entering  the 
river  on  the  ground  that  Gunnar  was  the  liege  lord  of  Sigurd. 
Gudrun,  white  with  wrath,  flashed  out  the  true  story  of  the  ride 
through  the  flames,  and  thrust  in  Br)^nhild's  face  the  Andvari 
ring.  Consumed  with  jealousy,  Brynhild  plotted  revenge.  She 
loved  Sigurd  still,  and  he,  since  he  had  regained  his  memory, 
could  not  overcome  his  love  for  her.  But  the  insult  from  Gudrun 
Brynhild  would  not  brook.  By  her  machinations,  Guttorm,  the 
brother  of  Gudrun,  was  incited  to  slay  Sigurd.  He,  accordingly, 
stabbed  the  hero  while  asleep,  but  Sigurd,  throwing  Gram  at  the 
assassin,  cut  him  in  twain  before  he  could  escape. 

Woe  me !  how  the  house  of  the  Niblungs  by  another  cry  was  rent, 

The  awakening  wail  of  Gudrun,  as  she  shrank  in  the  river  of  blood 

From  the  breast  of  the  mighty  Sigurd :  he  heard  it  and  understood, 

And  rose  up  on  the  §word  of  Guttorm,  and  turned  from  the  country  of  death, 

And  spake  words  of  loving-kindness  as  he  strove  for  hfe  and  breath ; 

"  Wail  not,  O  child  of  the  Niblungs !    I  am  smitten,  but  thou  shalt  live, 

In  remembrance  of  our  glory,  mid  the  gifts  the  gods  shall  give !   .  .   . 

It  is  Brynhild's  deed,"  he  murmured,  "and  the  woman  that  loves  me  well; 

Nought  now  is  left  to  repent  of,  and  the  tale  abides  to  tell. 

I  have  done  many  deeds  in  my  life-days,  and  all  these,  and  my  love,  they  lie 

In  the  hollow  hand  of  Odin  till  the  day  of  the  world  go  by. 

I  have  done  and  I  may  not  undo,  I  have  given  and  I  take  not  again ; 

Art  thou  other  than  I,  Allfather,  wilt  thou  gather  my  glory  in  vain?" 

So  ended  the  life  of  Sigurd.  Brynhild,  overcome  with  sorrow, 
dealt  herself  a  mortal  wound  and  was  burned  on  the  funeral  pyre 
beside  Sigurd  the  Volsung. 

In  time  Gudrun  became  the  queen  of  Atli,  the  Budlung.  He, 
in  order  to  obtain  the  hoard  of  Sigurd,  which  had  passed  into  the 
hands  of  the  Nibelungs,  —  Gudrun's  brothers, — bade  them  visit 
him  in.Hunland.  Fully  warned  by  Gudrun,  they  still  accepted  the 
invitation  and,  arriving  at  the  hall  of  Atli,  were  after  a  fearful  con- 
flict slain.  But  they  did  not  surrender  the  hoard  —  that  lay  con- 
cealed at  the  bottom  of  the  Rhine.  Gudrun  with  the  aid  of  Nibelung, 
her  brother  Hogni's  son,  in  the  end  slew  Atli,  set  fire  to  his  hall, 


MYTHS  OF  NORSE  AND  OLD  GERMAN  HEROES   405 

and  brought  ruin  on  the  Budlung  folk.  Then  leaping  into  the  sea, 
she  was  borne  with  Swanhild,  her  daughter  by  Sigurd,  to  the  realm 
of  King  Jonakr,  who  became  her  third  husband.  Swanhild,  "'  fair- 
est of  all  women,  eager-eyed  as  her  father,  so  that  few  durst  look 
under  the  brows  of  her,"  met,  by  stress  of  love  and  treachery,  a 
foul  end  in  a  foreign  land,  trampled  under  foot  of  horses. 

Finally  Gudrun  sent  her  sons  by  Jonakr  to  avenge  their  half- 
sister's  death  ;  and  so,  bereft  of  all  her  kin  and  consumed  with 
sorrow,  she  called  upon  her  ancient  lover,  Sigurd,  to  come  and 
look  upon  her,  as  he  had  promised,  from  his  abiding-place  among 
the  dead.    And  thus  had  the  words  of  her  sorrow  an  end. 

Her  sons  slew  Jormunrek,  the  murderer  of  Swanhild,  but  were 
themselves  done  to  death  by  the  counsel  and  aid  of  a  certain  war- 
rior, seeming  ancient  and  one-eyed,  — •  Odin  the  forefather  of  the 
Volsungs,  —  the  same  that  had  borne  Sigi  fellowship,  and  that 
struck  the  sword  into  Branstock  of  Volsung's  hall,  and  that  faced 
Sigmund  and  shattered  Gram  in  the  hour  of  Sigmund's  need,  and 
that  brought  to  Sigurd  the  matchless  horse  Greyfell,  and  oft  again 
had  appeared  to  the  kin  of  the  Volsungs  ;  —  the  same  god  now 
wrought  the  end  of  the  Nibelungs.  The  hoard  and  the  ring  of 
Andvari  had  brought  confusion  on  all  into  whose  hands  they  fell. 

283.  The  Lay  of  the  Nibelungs.^  In  the  German  version  of  this 
story  —  called  the  Nibelungenlied  —  certain  variations  of  name, 
incident,  and  character  appear.  Sigurd  is  Siegfried,  dwelling  in 
Xanten  near  the  Rhine,  the  son  of  Siegmund  and  Siegelind,  king 
and  queen  of  the  Netherlands.  Gudrun  is  Kriemhild,  sister  of 
Gunther  (Gunnar),  king  of  the  Burgundians,  and  niece  of  Hagen 
(Hogni),  a  warrior  of  dark  and  sullen  mien,  cunning,  but  withal 
loyal  and  brave,  the  foe  of  the  glorious  Siegfried.  Siegfried  weds 
Kriemhild,  takes  her  to  the  Netherlands  and  lives  happily  with  her, 
enjoying  the  moneys  of  the  Nibelungen  hoard,  which  he  had  taken 
not  from  a  dwarf,  as  in  the  Norse  version,  but.  from  two  princes, 
the  sons  of  King  Nibelung.  Meanwhile  Gunther  dwells  in  peace 
in  the  Burgundian  land,  husband  of  the  proud  Brunhild,  whom 
Siegfried  had  won  for  him  by  stratagem  not  altogether  unlike  that 

1  For  Records  of  German  Mythology,  see  §  301,  below;  for  literature  and  translations, 
see  §§  283  and  301  of  the  Commentary. 


406  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

of  the  Norse  story.  For  the  Brunhild  of  the  Yssel-land  had  de- 
clared that  she  would  marry  no  man  save  him  who  should  surpass 
her  in  athletic  contest.  This  condition  Siegfried,  wearing  the  Tarn- 
kappe,  a  cloak  that  rendered  him  invisible,  had  fulfilled  for  Gun- 
ther.  He  had  also  succored  poor  Gunther  after  his  marriage  with 
lirunhild.     For  that  heroine,  in  contempt  of  Gunther's  strength, 

had  bound  him  hand 
and  foot  and  suspended 
him  from  a  nail  on  their 
bedroom  wall.  By 
agreement  Siegfried 
had  again  assumed  Gun- 
ther's form  and,  after  a 
fearful  tussle  with  the 
queen,  had  reduced  her 
to  submission,  taking 
from  her  the  ring  and 
girdle  which  were  the 
secret  sources  of  her 
strength,  and  leaving 
her  to  imagine  that  she 
^z^_,-  had  been  conquered  by 
her  bridegroom,  Gun- 
ther. The  ring  and 
girdle  Siegfried  had  be- 
stowed upon  Kriemhild, 
unwisely  telling  her  at 
the  same  time  the  story  of  Brunhild's  defeat.  Although  the  Nibe- 
lungenlied  offers  no  explanation,  it  is  evident  that  the  injured  queen 
of  Yssel-land  had  recognized  Siegfried  during  this  ungallant  in- 
trigue ;  and  we  are  led  to  infer  that  there  had  been  some  previous 
acquaintance  and  passage  of  love  between  them. 

At  any  rate,  Siegfried  and  Kriemhild,  retiring  to  the  Nether- 
lands, were  ruling  happily  at  Xanten  by  the  Rhine  ;  and  all  might 
have  continued  in  peace  had  not  Brunhild  resented  the  lack  of 
homage  paid  by  Siegfried,  whom  she  had  been  led  to  regard  as  a 
vassal,  to  Gunther,  his  reputed  overlord. 


Fig.  188.   Gunther  and  Bklnuild 
From  the  fresco  by  Julius  Schnorr  von  Carolsfeld 


MYTHS  OF  NORSE  AND  OLD  GERMAN  HEROES 

In  her  heart  this  thought  she  fostered,  deep  in  its  inmost  core  ;  ^ 
That  still  they  kept  such  distance,  a  secret  grudge  she  bore. 
How  came  it  that  their  vassal  to  court  declined  to  go, 
Nor  for  his  land  did  homage,  she  inly  yearned  to  know. 

She  made  request  of  Gunther,  and  begged  it  so  might  be, 
That  she  the  absent  Kriemhild  yet  once  again  might  see. 
And  told  him,  too,  in  secret,  whereon  her  thoughts  were  bent,  — - 
Then  with  the  words  she  uttered  her  lord  was  scarce  content. 

But  Gunther  yielded, 
and  Siegfried  and  Kriem- 
hild were  invited  to  Worms, 
nominally  to  attend  a  high 
festival. 

.  .  .  With  what  joy  and  gladness 

welcomed  were  they  there ! 
It  seemed  when  came  dame 

Brunhild    to    Burgundy 

whilere. 
Her  welcome  by  dame  Kriemhild 

less  tender  was  and  true  ; 
The  heart  of  each  beholder  beat 

higher  at  the  view.  .  .  . 

Received  was  bold  Sir  Siegfried, 

as  fitted  well  his  state. 
With  the  highest   honors;    no 

man  bore  him  hate. 
Young  Giselher   and   Gemot 

proffered  all  courtly  care ; 
Never  met  friend  or  kinsman 

reception  half  so  fair. 


407 


Fig.   189.     SlEGP'RIED   AND    KRIEMHILD 
From  the  fresco  by  Julius  Schnorr  von  Carolsfeld 


One  day  at  the  hour  of  vespers  certain  knights  proved  them- 
selves at  tilting  in  the  regal  courtyard.  Conspicuous  among  these 
was  Siegfried,  And  the  proud  queens  sitting  together  were  think- 
ing each  on  the  good  knight  that  she  loved  full  well.  Then  out- 
spoke fair  Kriemhild,  "  My  husband  is  of  such  might  that  surely 
he  should  rule  these  realms  " ;  Brunhild  answered,  "  So  long  as 
Gunther  lives  that  can  never  be." 

1  The  extracts  in  verse  are,  unless  otherwise  stated,  from  the  translation  by  W,  N.  Lett- 
som,  Londpn,  1S90.   Werner  Hahn's  Ueb^r§et?wng  has  also  been  used. 


4o8  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

.   .  .  Thereto  rejoined  fair  Kriemhild,  "  See'st  thou  how  proud  he  stands, 
How  proud  he  stalks,  conspicuous  among  those  warrior  bands, 
As  doth  the  moon  far-beaming  the  glimmering  stars  outshine  ? 
Sure  have  I  cause  to  pride  me  when  such  a  knight  is  mine." 

Thereto  replied  queen  Brunhild,  "  How  brave  soe'er  he  be. 
How  stout  soe'er  or  stately,  one  greater  is  than  he. 
Gunther,  thy  noble  brother,  a  higher  place  may  claim. 
Of  knights  and  kings  the  foremost  in  merit  and  in  fame." 

So  began  the  altercation.  It  attained  its  climax  the  same  day, 
when  each  queen  attempted  to  take  precedence  of  the  other  in 
entering  the  cathedral  for  the  celebration  of  the  mass. 

Both  met  before  the  minster  in  all  the  people's  sight ; 
There  at  once  the  hostess  let  out  her  deadly  spite. 
Bitterly  and  proud  she  bade  fair  Kriemhild  stand ; 
"No  vassaless  precedeth  the  lady  of  the  land." 

Then,  full  of  wrath,  Kriemhild,  in  terms  an)1;hing  but  delicate, 
acquainted  her  haughty  sister-in-law  with  the  deception  that  had 
twice  been  practiced  upon  her  by  Siegfried  and  Gunther ;  nay, 
worse,  corroborated  her  statement  by  displaying  both  ring  and 
girdle  that  Brunhild  had  lost.  The  altercation  came  to  the  ears 
of  the  kings.    Gunther  made  complaint  to  Siegfried.    Then, 

..."  Women  must  be  instructed,"  said  Siegfried,  the  good  knight, 
"  To  leave  off  idle  talking  and  rule  their  tongues  aright. 
Keep  thy  fair  wife  in  order,  I  '11  do  by  mine  the  same. 
Such  overweening  folly  puts  me  indeed  to  shame." 

But  it  was  too  late  to  mend  the  matter.  With  devilish  intent  Bmn- 
hild  plotted  vengeance.  Siegfried,  the  author  of  her  mortification, 
must  die  the  death.  The  foes  of  Siegfried  persuaded  his  wife,  un- 
aware of  their  design,  to  embroider  in  his  vesture  a  silken  cross  over 
the  one  spot  where  the  hero  was  vulnerable.  Then  the  crafty  Hagen, 
who  had  been  suborned  by  Brunhild  to  the  baleful  deed,  bided  his 
time.  One  day,  Gunther,  Hagen,  and  Siegfried,  heated  in  running, 
stayed  by  a  brook  to  drink.    Hagen  saw  his  chance. 

.  .  .  Then,  as  to  drink,  Sir  Siegfried  down  kneeling  there  he  found, 
He  pierced  him  through  the  crosslet,  that  sudden  from  the  wound 
Forth  the  life-blood  spurted,  e'en  o'er  his  murderer's  weed. 
Nevermore  will  warrior  dare  so  foul  a  deed.  .  .  . 


MYTHS  OF  NORSE  AND  OLD  GERMAN  HEROES   409 

.  .  .  With  blood  were  all  bedabbled  the  flowerets  of  the  field. 
Some  time  with  death  he  struggled  as  though  he  scorned  to  yield 
E'en  to  the  foe  whose  weapon  strikes  down  the  loftiest  head. 
At  last  prone  in  the  meadow  lay  mighty  Siegfried  dead. 

Brunhild  glories  in  the  fall  of  Siegfried  and  exults  over  the 
mourning  widow.  Kriemhild,  sitting  apart,  nurses  schemes  of 
vengeance.  Her  brothers  affect  to  patch  up  the  breach  in  order 
that  they  may  obtain  the  hoard  of  the  Nibelungs.  But  this  treas- 
ure, after  it  has  been  brought  to  Worms,  is  sunk,  for  precaution's 
sake,  by  Hagen,  in  the  Rhine.  Although  in  time  Kriemhild  be- 
comes the  wife  of  King  Etzel  (Atli,  Attila)  of  Hunland,  still  she 
does  not  forget  the  injury  done  her  by  her  kin.  After  thirteen 
years  she  inveigles  her  brothers  and  their  retainers,  called  now 
Nibelungs  because  of  their  possession  of  the  hoard,  to  Etzel's 
court,  where,  after  a  desperate  and  dastardly  encounter,  in  which 
their  hall  is  reduced  to  ashes,  they  are  all  destroyed  save  Gunther 
and  Hagen.  Immediately,  thereafter,  Gunther's  head  is  cut  off  at 
her  orders ;  and  she  herself,  with  Siegfried's  sword  Balmung, 
severs  the  head  of  the  hated  Hagen  from  his  body.  With  these 
warriors  the  secret  of  the  hidden  hoard  passes.  Kriemhild,  having 
wreaked  her  vengeance,  falls  by  the  hand  of  one  of  her  husband's 
knights,  Hildebrand,  who,  with  Dietrich  of  Bern,  had  played  a 
prominent  part  among  the  associates  of  King  Etzel, 

"  I  cannot  say  you  now  what  hath  befallen  since ; 

The  women  all  were  weeping,  and  the  Ritters  and  the  prince, 

Also  the  noble  squires,  their  dear  friends  lying  dead : 

Here  hath  the  story  ending ;  this  is  the  Nibelungen's  Need."  ^ 

1  From  Carlyle's  translation  of  fragments  of  the  poem. 


CHAPTER   XXIX 

THE   RING   OF  THE  NIBELUNG 

284.  Wagner's  Tetralogy.  In  his  famous  Ring  of  the  Nibelung 
the  German  composer,  Richard  Wagner,  returns  to  the  Norse  version 
of  the  stories  recounted  in  the  chapter  preceding  this.  He  is  respon- 
sible not  only  for  the  musical  score  of  the  four  operas  of  which  the 
Ring  consists,  but  for  the  text  and  scenic  arrangement  as  well.  As 
musical  dramas  the  four  plays  constitute  the  grandest  series  of  the 
kind  that  the  world  possesses.  But  even  if  they  were  not  wedded 
to  such  music,  the  Rhme-gold,  the  Valkyrie,  the  Siegfried,  and 
the  TiviligJit  (or  Dusk)  of  the  Gods  would  be  entitled,  for  creative 
invention,  imaginative  insight  and  power,  and  poetic  diction,  to  rank 
with  notable  dramas,  ancient  or  modern.  The  tetralogy  (or  series 
of  four)  presents  the  whole  story  of  the  accursed  Nibelung  gold, 
from  that  dawn  when  it  was  wrested  from  the  daughters  of  the 
Rhine  to  that  dusk  when  it  was  restored,  having  wrought  mean- 
while the  doom  of  Nibelungs,  Volsungs,  and  the  gods  themselves. 

285.  The  Rhine-gold.  We  are  at  the  bottom  of  the  Rhine  :  a 
greenish  twilight,  and  moving  water,  and  everywhere  sharp  points 
of  rocks  jutting  from  the  depths.  Around  the  central  rock  three 
Rhine-daughters  swim,  guarding  it  carefully,  but  laughing  and 
playing,  and  chasing  one  the  other  as  they  guard.  To  them  from 
a  chasm  climbs  Alberich,  the  Nibelung,  he  who  in  the  old  Norse 
lay  was  known  as  Andvari.  He  views  the  maidens  with  increasing 
pleasure.  He  addresses  them,  he  clambers  after  them,  he  strives 
to  catch  them  ;  they  lure  him  on,  they  mock  him  and  escape  his 
grasp  ;  he  woos  them  each  in  turn,  all  unsuccessfully.  He  gazes 
upward  —  "  Could  I  but  catch  one  "  ;  then  once  more  failing,  re- 
mains in  speechless  rage.  Rage  soon  transformed  to  wonder :  for 
through  the  water  from  above  there  filters  a  brightening  glow,  a 

410 


THE  RING  OF  THE  NIBELUNG 


411 


magical  light,  streaming  from  the  summit  of  the  central  rock  where 
in  the  splendor  of  the  morning  sun  the  Rhine-gold  laughs  a-kindle. 

"  What  is  it,  ye  sleek  ones, 

That  there  doth  gleam  and  glow  ?  "  ^ 

Has  he  never  heard  of  the  Rhine-gold  ?  they  ask.    Of  the  won- 
drous star  whose  glory  lightens  the  waves  ?  He  has  not.  He  scorns  it. 
"  The  golden  charm,"  cries  one  of  the  maidens,  — 

"  The  golden  charm 
Wouldst  thou  not  flout 
Knewest  thou  all  of  its  wonders." 

"The  world's  wealth,"  jeers  another, 

"  Could  be  won  by  a  man 

If  out  of  the  Rhine-gold 

He  fashioned  the  Ring 
That  measureless  might  can  bestow  .  .  . 

He  who  the  sway 

Of  love  forswears, 

He  who  delight 

Of  love  forbears. 
Only  he  can  master  the  magic 
That  forces  the  gold  to  a  ring ! " 

"  But  we  fear  not  thee  —  oh,  no — for  thou  burnest  in  love  for  us." 
So,  lightly  sing  the  Rhine-daughters  ;  but  Alberich,  with  his 
eyes  on  the  gold,  has  heeded  well  their  chatter,  "The  world's 
wealth,"  he  mutters  ;  "  might  I  win  that  by  the  spell  of  the  gold  .-* 
Nay,  though  love  be  the  forfeit,  my  cunning  shall  win  me  delight." 
Then  terribly  loud  he  cries, 

"  Mock  ye,  mock  on  ! 
The  Nibelung  nearcth  your  toy  ;  —  " 

then,  clambering  with  haste  to  the  summit, 

"  My  hand,  it  quenches  your  light; 
I  wrest  from  the  rock  your  gold ; 
I  fashion  the  ring  of  revenge  ; 

Now,  hear  me,  ye  floods  — 
Accursed  be  love  henceforth." 

1  For  the  translations  of  the  Ring,  especially  the  verse,  I  am  indebted  to  the  edition 
of  Frederick  Jameson  (Schott  &  Co.,  London). 


412  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Tearing  the  gold  from  the  rock,  he  plunges  into  the  depths  and 
disappears.  After  him  dive  the  maidens.  In  vain.  Far,  far  below, 
from  Nibelheim  rises  the  mocking  laughter  of  Alberich,  Lord  of 
the  Gold. 

The  scene  changes.  An  open  space  on  a  mountain  height  be- 
comes visible.  The  dawning  day  lights  up  a  castle,  glittering  with 
pinnacles,  on  the  top  of  a  cliff.  Below  flows  silent  the  Rhine.  At 
one  side,  on  a  flowery  bank,  Wotan  (Odin),  king  of  the  gods,  lies 
sleeping,  and  Fricka  (Frigga)  his  wife.  They  wake.  Wotan  turns 
toward  his  castle,  new-built  by  the  giants,  and  exults ;  but  Fticka 
reminds  him  of  the  terrible  price  that  is  yet  to  be  paid  for  its  build- 
ing, —  none  other,  forsooth,  than  the  person  of  Freia,  the  fair  one, 
the  goddess  of  spring  and  love,  she  who  tends  the  garden  of  the 
gods,  and  whose  apples,  eaten  from  day  to  day,  confer  eternal 
youth,  —  she  is  the  wage  that  the  giants  will  claim. 

"  I  mind  me  well  of  the  bargain,"  returns  Wotan,  "but  I  give 
no  thought  to  fulfill  it.  My  castle  stands  ;  for  the  wage  —  fret  not 
thyself." 

"Oh,  laughing,  impious  lightness,"  reproves  him  Fricka,  "thy 
bargain  is  fast,  and  is  still  to  rue." 

Nay,  on  the  moment  rushes  Freia  to  them,  pleading,  pursued 
by  the  giants.  "  Give  her  to  us  !  "  they  cry,  —  Fasolt  and  Fafner, 
mighty  twain  that  unslumbering  had  reared  the  walls  of  Wotan's 
castle,  to  win  them  a  woman,  winsome  and  sweet. 

"  Now  pay  us  our  wage !  " 

"  Nay,"  coolly  answers  Wotan,  "  other  guerdon  ask.  Freia  may 
I  not  grant!  " 

But  the  giants  insist.  They  accuse  the  god  of  faithlessness.  He 
jests  with  "them,  temporizing,  awaiting  anxiously  the  arrival  of 
Loge  (Loki),  spirit  of  cunning,  at  whose  suggestion  that  bargain 
had  been  struck.  For  even  then  Loge  had  secretly  assured  Wotan 
that  Freia  should  in  the  emergency  be  ransomed.  The  giants, 
indignant  at  the  delay,  press  on  Freia.  She  calls  on  her  brothers, 
Froh  (Freyr)  and  Donner  (Thor).  They  msh  to  her  rescue  :  Froh 
clasps  the  fair  one  ;  Donner  plants  himself  before  the  importunates. 

"  Know  ye  the  weight  of  my  hammer's  blow  .'*  "  thunders  he. 

There  is  battle  in  the  air. 


THE  RING  OF  THE  NIBELUNG  413 

Then  enters  Loge,  demon  of  fire,  mischief-maker,  traitor,  and 
thief,  whom  long  ago  Wotan  had  hfted  from  his  evil  brood  and 
of  him  made  a  friend  and  counselor. 

"  Now  hear,  crabbed  one  ;  keep  thy  word,"  says  Wotan,  sharply, 

Loge  appears  to  be  nonplussed.  He  has  restlessly  searched  to 
the  ends  of  the  world  to  find  a  ransom  for  Freia  ;  "  but  naught  is 
so  rich  that  giant  or  man  will  take  it  as  price  for  a  woman's  worth 
and  delight."  He  has  sought  amid  the  forces  of  water  and  earth 
and  air  ;  "'  but  naught  is  so  mighty  that  giant  or  man  will  prefer  it 
above  a  woman's  worth  and  delight !  "  And  yet,  —  slyly  Loge  lets 
fall  the  word,  —  there  is  the  ruddy  Gold  : 

"  Yea,  one  I  looked  on,  but  one,  who  love's  delights  forswore, 
for  ruddy  gold  renouncing  the  wealth  of  woman's  grace," 

And  he  recounts  the  mar\'els  of  the  Rhine-gold.  The  giants 
offer  to  take  it  in  lieu  of  Freia ;  nay,  gods  and  goddesses  as  well 
are  held  by  the  charm  of  the  glittering  hoard  ;  by  the  lure,  and 
the  dread  too,  of  the  Ring  that,  once  fashioned,  gives  measureless 
might  to  its  lord.  Even  now,  doubtless,  he  who  has  forsworn  love 
has  muttered  the  magic  rune  and  rounded  the  sovereign  circlet  of 
gold.  If  so,  the  gods  themselves  shall  be  his  slaves,  —  slaves  of 
the  Nibelung  Alberich. 

"  The  ring  I  must  win  me,"  decides  Wotan, 

"  But  at  the  cost  of  love  }  "  queries  Froh, 

Loge  counsels  the  theft  of  the  gold  from  Alberich  and  its  resto- 
ration to  the  daughters  of  the  Rhine,  But  the  gods  are  not  thus  far- 
sighted,  and  the  giants  insist  upon  the  hoard  as  their  due.  They  seize 
Freia,  and  bear  her  away  as  pledge  till  that  ransom  be  paid,   ,   .   , 

"  Alack,  what  aileth  the  gods.'"' 

It  is  Loge  who  speaks,  A  pale  mist  falls  upon  the  scene,  gradually 
growing  denser,  Thelightof  the  heavenly  abodes  is  quenched,  Wo- 
tan and  all  his  clan  become  increasingly  wan  and  aged,  Freia  of  the 
Garden  is  departed :  the  apples  of  youth  are  decaying ;  "old  and  gray, 
worn  and  withered,  the  scoff  of  the  world,  dies  out  the  godly  race  !  " 
''Up,  Loge,"  calls  Wotan,  dismayed,  "descend  with  me.  To 
Nibelheim  go  we  together.  To  win  back  our  youth,  the  golden 
ransom  must  I  gain." 


414  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

The  scene  changes  to  Nibelheim,  the  subterranean  home  of  the 
Nibelungs.  Wotan  and  Loge  find  Mime,  Alberich's  brother,  be- 
wailing the  fate  of  the  Nibelungs  —  for  Alberich  has  fashioned 
the  Ring  and  all  below  groan  under  his  tyranny.  Even  now,  reluc- 
tantly indeed,  Mime  is  forging  the  Tarnhelm  for  his  tyrant  brother, 
—  a  wishingcap  by  whose  magic  the  wearer  may  transfer  himself 
through  space  and  assume  whatever  form  he  please,  or  make  him- 
self invisible,  at  will.  Alberich,  in  the  flush  of  power,  enters,  driv- 
ing before  him  with  brandished  whip  a  host  of  Nibelungs  from 
the  caverns.  They  are  laden  with  gold  and  silver  handiwork.  At 
Alberich's  command  they  heap  it  in  a  pile.  He  draws  the  Ring  from 
his  finger ;  the  vanquished  host  trembles  and,  shrieking,  cowers 
away. 

"  What  seek  ye  here }  "  demands  he,  looking  long  and  suspi- 
ciously at  Wotan  and  Loge. 

They  have  heard  strange  tidings,  says  Wotan,  and  they  come  to 
see  the  wonders  that  Alberich  can  work.  Then  Loge  induces  the 
Nibelung  lord  to  exhibit  the  virtues  of  the  Tarnhelm.  Readily 
beguiled,  he  displays  his  necromantic  power.  First  he  transforms 
himself  into  a  loathly  dragon.  The  gods  pretend  dismay :  —  he 
can  rhake  himself  great ;  can  he  make  himself  small,  likewise  ? 
"  Pah,  nothing  simpler  !  Look  at  me  now  !  "  He  dons  the  Tarn- 
helm, and  lo,  a  toad  ! 

"There,  grasp  quickly,"  says  Loge.  Wotan  places  his  foot  on 
the  toad,  and  Loge  seizes  the  Tarnhelm.  Alberich  becomes  visible 
in  his  own  form,  writhing  under  Wotan's  foot.  The  gods  bind  him 
and  drag  him  to  the  chasm  by  which  they  had  descended. 

The  scene  changes  to  the  open  space  before  Valhalla.  Alberich, 
dragged  in  by  Loge,  is  forced  to  deliver  up  the  hoard  and  the 
Tarnhelm  and  the  Ring.  Wotan  contemplates  the  Ring  and  puts 
it  on.    Alberich  is  set  at  liberty. 

"  Am  I  now  free  ?  "  cries  he,  "  free  in  sooth  ?  Thus  greets  you 
then  my  freedom's  foremost  word  :  As  by  curse  it  came  to  me,  ac- 
cursed forever  be  this  Ring !  As  its  gold  gave  measureless  might, 
let  now  its  magic  deal  death  to  its  lord.  Its  wealth  shall  yield 
pleasure  to  none.  Care  shall  consume  him  who  doth  hold  it.  All 
shall  lust  after  its  delights  ;  yet  naught  shall  it  boot  him  who  wins 


THE  RING  OF  THE  NIBELUNG  415 

the  prize !  To  its  lord  no  gain  let  it  bring ;  and  forever  be  mur- 
der drawn  in  its  wake,  till  again  once  more  in  my  hand,  rewon,  I 
hold  it !  " 

So  the  baffled  Nibelung  curses,  and  departs.  Then  enter  Fricka, 
Donner,  and  Froh,  followed  soon  by  the  giants,  who  bring  Freia 
back.  They  refuse,  Fasolt  and  Fafner,  to  release  the  fair  goddess 
until  she  is  fully  redeemed  ;  and  they  claim  not  only  T^rnhelm 
and  gold,  but  Ring  as  well.  With  the  Ring  Wotan  refuses  to  part. 
In  that  moment  rises  from  a  rocky  cleft  the  goddess  of  the  earth, 
Erda,  the  beloved  of  heaven's  god,  and  mother  by  him  of  the 
Valkyries. 

"Yield  it,  Wotan,  yield  it,"  she  cries  warningly.  "Flee  the 
Ring's  dread  curse." 

"  What  woman  warneth  me  thus  ?  " 

"  All  that  e'er  was,  know  I,"  pronounces  Erda  : 

"  How  all  things  are  ; 

How  all  things  shall  be. 
Hear  me  !  hear  me  !  hear  me ! 
All  that  e'er  was,  endeth  : 

A  darksome  day 

Dawns  for  your  godhood  ! 
Be  counseled;  give  up  the  Ring." 

She  vanishes,  the  all-wise  one  ;  and  Wotan  surrenders  the  Ring. 
Freia  is  redeemed,  and  the  gods  glow  again  with  youth.  No  sooner 
have  the  giants  gained  possession  of  the  Ring  than  they  proceed 
to  quarrel  over  it.  Fafner  strikes  out  with  his  staff  and  stretches 
i^'asolt  on  the  ground.  From  the  dying  man  he  hastily  vvrests  the 
Ring,  puts  it  into  his  sack,  and  goes  on  quietly  packing  the  gold. 
In  a  solemn  silence  the  gods  stand  horrified.  Care  and  fear  fetter 
the  soul  of  Wotan.  That  he  may  shake  himself  free  of  them  he 
determines  to  descend  to  Erda ;  she  yet  can  give  him  counsel. 
But  first,  —  for  Donner  has  cleared  with  his  thunder  and  lightning 
the  clouds  that  had  overspread  the  scene,  —  he  will  enter  "Val- 
halla," his  castle,  golden-gleaming  in  the  evening  sunlight. 

"What  meaneth  the  name,  then.?"  asks  Fricka,  as  they  cross 
the  rainbow  bridge. 


41 6  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Wotan  evades  the  question,  for  he  still  dreads  the  curse  pro- 
nounced by  the  Nibelung  upon  all  who  have  owned  the  Ring  ;  and 
that  name,  "'  Valhalla,"  indicates  just  the  means  by  which  he  hopes 
to  escape  the  curse.  He  has  thought  to  avert  the  doom  of  the  gods 
by  gathering  in  this  Valhalla,  or  Hall  of  the  Slain,  the  spirits  of 
heroes  fallen  in  battle  —  especially  of  heroes  of  a  race  that  shall 
spring  from  himself,  the  Volsungs  (or  Walsungs)  yet  to  be  born. 
They  shall  do  battle  for  the  gods  when  sounds  the  crack  of  doom. 
But  of  all  this  Wotan  says  naught.  He  will  say  in  the  hour  of  his 
triumph. 

As  the  gods  enter  Valhalla  the  plaints  of  the  Rhine-maidens 
for  the  loss  of  their  gold  arise  from  the  river  below. 

286.  In  The  Valkyrie  Wotan  proceeds  with  his  plan.  During 
his  wanderings  on  earth,  under  the  name  of  Walse,  he  has  become 
the  father  of  twin  children,  Siegmund  and  Sieglinde.  These  have, 
in  early  youth,  been  separated  by  the  murderous  turmoil  of  warring 
clans,  but  now  they  are  to  be  reunited ;  and  Wotan,  with  a  primi- 
tive disregard  of  the  fact  that  they  are  brother  and  sister,  intends 
to  make  them  man  and  wife,  in  order  that  from  them  may  issue 
the  heroic  race  that,  in  the  latter  days,  shall  defend  Valhalla  from 
the  onslaught  of  the  powers  of  evil. 

The  play  opens  with  the  interior  of  a  woodland  lodge.  In  the 
center  rises  the  stem  of  a  mighty  ash  tree,  about  which  has  been 
built  an  apartment  of  roughly  hewn  logs.  It  is  toward  evening 
and  a  violent  thunderstorm  is  just  subsiding.  This  is  the  home 
of  Hunding,  chieftain  of  the  Neiding  clan.  The  door  opens,  and 
Siegmund,  flying  from  his  enemies,  wounded  and  weaponless, 
enters.  Seeing  no  one,  he  closes  the  door,  strides  toward  the  fire, 
and  throws  himself  wearily  down  on  a  bearskin  : 

"  Whoe'er  own  this  hearth, 
Here  must  I  rest  me." 

He  remains  stretched  out  motionless.  A  woman  enters  from  an 
inner  chamber.  It  is  Sieglinde.  She  takes  compassion  on  the 
helpless  fugitive,  admires  his  noble  bearing,  gives  him  drink,  and 
bids  him  tarry  till  her  husband  be  home.    They  gaze  upon  each 


THE  RING  OF  THE  NIBELUNG  417 

other  with  ever-increasing  interest  and  emotion.  Suddenly  Sieg- 
mund  starts  up  as  if  to  go. 

"  Who  pursues  thee  ?  "  she  inquires. 

"  111  fate  pursues  where'er  I  go.  To  thee,  wife,  may  it  never 
come.    Forth  from  thy  house  I  fly." 

She  calls  him  back.  "Then  bide  thou  here.  Thou  canst  not 
bring  ill  fate  where  ill  fate  already  makes  its  home." 

He  leans  against  the  hearth.  Again  the  eyes  of  the  twain  meet. 

Hunding  enters,  regards  the  stranger  with  suspicion,  notes  the 
resemblance  between  him  and  Sieglinde  ;  but  he  consents  to  harbor 
him  for  the  night. 

"  Thy  name  and  fortune  ?  " 

"  Wehwalt,"  says  Siegmund,  "  for  woe  still  waits  on  my  steps  ; 
Wehwalt,  the  son  of  Wolfe."  And  thus  concealing  his  race,  he 
tells  a  story  in  other  respects  tme  :  how  in  his  childhood  a  cruel 
host  had  laid  waste  his  home  and  killed  his  mother  and  carried 
away  the  sister  who  was  his  twin,  and  how  he  and  his  father,  the 
Wolf,  for  years  had  battled  in  the  woodlands  against  the  Neidings. 

The  Neidings  !    They  are  Hunding's  clan. 

"  My  house  holds  thee.  Wolfing,  to-night.  To-morrow  defend 
thee ;  with  death  thou  shalt  pay  for  this  life !  "  And  Hunding 
withdraws,  Sieglinde  with  him. 

Siegmund  is  weaponless.  The  firelight  sends  a  sudden  glow 
upon  the  ash  tree,  and  a  sword-hilt  there  sends  back  an  answering 
gleam.  But  Siegmund  knows  not  what  it  m.eans.  Clad  in  white, 
Sieglinde  steals  from  the  inner  room.  She  has  left  Hunding 
asleep,  overcome  by  a  slumberous  draft. 

"Thy  coming  is  life,"  cries  Siegmund. 

"  A  weapon,  now,  let  me  show  thee,"  she  replies.  And  she  tells 
how,  on  the  day  of  her  unhappy  wedding,  a  stranger,  all  in  gray, 
low-hatted  and  one-eyed,  had  entered  the  Hunding  hall  and  stmck 
into  the  ash  stem  a  sword  that  none  but  the  bravest  of  heroes  could 
win,  and  how  all  in  turn  had  tried  in  vain  to  draw  forth  the  sword. 
Now  she  knows  for  whom  it  was  ordained,  — 

"It  was  for  thee,  my  deliverer,  my  hero  held  in  my  arms  !  " 

They  embrace.  He  declares  his  lineage.  He  is  son  of  him 
whose  eye  proudly  glistened  from  under  the  low-brimmed  hat,  — 


41 8  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

son  of  Walse,  the  wanderer.  He  is  Siegmund,  the  Victorious.  F'or 
him,  the  sword  Nothung.  — And  he  draws  it  easily  forth. 

"Art  thou  Siegmund.?"  she  cries;  "  Sieghnde  am  I.  Thine 
own  twin  sister  thou  winnest  at  once  with  the  sword." 

"  Bride  and  sister  be  to  thy  brother;  then  flourish  the  Walsungs 
for  aye !  " 

So  the  twain  make  their  compact. 

In  the  second  act  we  are  transported  to  a  wild  and  rocky  place. 
Before  Wotan,  fully  armed  and  carr)dng  his  spear,  stands  Briinn- 
hilde,  the  warrior  maid,  likewise  fully  armed.  She  is  one  of  the 
nine  Valkyries,  daughters  of  Wotan  and  Erda,  fostered  for  battle 
that  .they  might  forfend  the  doom  foretold  by  Erda  herself,  —  the 
shameful  defeat  of  the  gods.  Well  have  the  Valkyrs,  choosers 
of  the  slain,  performed  their  task,  stirring  mortal  hearts  to  battle 
and  riding  through  the  air  above  to  designate  the  bravest  for 
death,  and  with  their  spirits  to  fill  the  halls  on  Valhalla's  height. 
Now,  however,  Wotan  is  ordering  Briannhilde  to  haste  to  the 
fray, — not  on  death's  errand  but  on  errand  of  life,  —  to  shield 
Siegmund  the  Walsung  in  the  fight.  The  Valkyrie  springs 
shouting  from  rock  to  rock,  and  disappears  behind  the  mountain 
crags. 

All  seems  to  be  arranged.  But  lo,  Fricka,  in  her  ram-drawn 
car  !  She  descends  and  strides  toward  her  scheming  spouse.  The 
goddess  has  heard  the  cry  of  Hunding,  calling  for  vengeance  on 
the  twinborn  pair  who  have  rashly  wrought  him  wrong ;  and  as 
guardian  of  wedlock  she  demands  the  death  of  Siegmund  in  the 
coming  conflict.  Wotan  tries  to  persuade  her  that  Siegmund's 
success  is  needful  to  the  gods,  —  the  warrior  band  of  mortal  souls 
gathered  by  the  Valkyries  in  the  heights  of  Valhalla  cannot  alone 
suffice  to  avert  the  onslaught  of  the  powers  of  darkness. 

"  Needed  is  one  who,  free  from  help  of  godhood,  fights  free 
of  the  godhead's  control.  Only  such  an  one  is  meet  for  the  deed 
which  is  denied  to  a  god  to  achieve." 

But  Fricka  is  not  to  be  deceived  nor  thwarted  in  her  aim.  She 
brushes  aside  the  plea  of  Wotan  and  his  subterfuge,  —  who  has 
ever  heard  that  heroes  can  accomplish  what  the  gods  cannot .-'  And 
as  for  heroes  unaided  —  none  such  is  Siegmund, 


THE  RING  OF  THE  NIBELUNG  419 

"Who  was  it,"  she  asks,  "that  brought  him  his  conquering 
sword  ?  and  whose  shield  is  ordained  to  cover  him  in  the  fight  ?  " 

"I  cannot  o'erthrow  him,"  breaks  out  Wotan  ;  "he  has  found 
my  sword." 

"  Destroy  its  magic  then,"  retorts  the  implacable  queen.  "  Give 
word  to  thy  shouting  war-maid  that  Siegmund  fall !  " 

Wotan  is  conquered.  Sadly  he  revokes  the  order  given  to  Briinn- 
hilde. 

"  Then  takest  thou  from  Siegmund  thy  shield  .?  "  cries  that  one 
in  amazement. 

And  the  god  :  "  Yea  !  though  Alberich's  host  threaten  our  down- 
fall ;  though  again  the  Ring  be  won  by  the  Nibelung,  and  Valhalla 
be  lost  forever.  By  bargains  bound  myself,  I  may  not  wrest  the 
Ring  from  the  foeman,  from  Fafner  the  giant.  Therefore,  to  fulfill 
my  purpose,  I  had  thought  to  create  a  Free  One  who  for  me  should 
fight.  Now,  with  loathing,  I  find  ever  myself  in  all  my  hand  has 
created.  The  Other  for  whom  I  have  longed,  that  Other  I  never 
shall  find.  Himself  must  the  Free  One  create  him  ;  my  hand 
shapes  nothing  but  slaves.  For  when  this  hand  of  mine  touched 
Alberich's  Ring,  my  heart  grew  greedy  of  gold.  I  fled  from  the 
curse,  but  the  curse  flies  not  from  me.  What  I  love  best  must  I 
surrender  ;  whom  most  I  cherish,  I  must  slay.  One  thing  awaits 
me  yet  —  the  downfall !  Yea,  that  portended  Erda,  —  Erda,  the 
all-wise. 

"  'When  the  dusky  foe,'  she  said,  — 

'  When  the  dusky  foe  of  love 
Grimly  getteth  a  son, 

The  doom  of  the  gods 

Delays  not  long ! ' 

And  of  late  I  have  heard  that  the  Nibelung  has  bought  him  a 
wife.  Their  son  shall  inherit,  —  their  son,  the  child  of  spite,  shall 
inherit  the  empty  pomp  of  the  gods  !  " 

It  was  of  Hagen,  yet  unborn,  the  baleful  curse  of  the  Volsungs, 
of  Hagen,  the  traitor,  that  Erda  had  prophesied.  And  thus  dimly 
is  foreshadowed  the  Twilight  of  the  Gods. 

But  Briinnhilde .'' 


420  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

"  Siegmund  thou  hast  taught  me  to  love,"  murmurs  the  Val- 
kyrie.   Then  boldly,  — 

"  For  his  sake  thy  wavering  word  I  defy  !  " 

The  war-father  "turns  in  wrath  upon  this  new  rebellion,  and  on 
pain  of  eternal  penalty  enjoins  upon  his  daughter  her  new  duty  : 

"  Fight  truly  for  Fricka  !  Siegmund  strike  thou  !  Such  be  the 
Valkyrie's  task !  " 

The  war-maid  seeks  out  Siegmund  and  announces  to  him  his 
approaching  death.  But  that  hero's  distress  at  the  thought  of  part- 
ing from  Sieglinde  stirs  her  to  the  quick.  And,  in  the  moment 
of  battle,  Brunnhilde  disobeys  the  All-father's  injunction ;  —  she 
shields  the  warrior  whom  she  loves.  Then  suddenly  appears  Wotan, 
standing  over  Hunding  and  holding  his  spear  across  in  front  of 
Siegmund. 

"Go  back  from  the  spear!  In  splinters  the  sword!"  shouts 
the  god. 

In  terror  Brunnhilde  sinks  back.  Siegmund's  sword  breaks  on 
the  outstretched  spear,  and  Hunding  pierces  the  Volsung's  breast. 
Brunnhilde  hastily  gathers  the  bits  of  the  broken  sword,  lifts  Sieg- 
linde to  horse,  and  escapes  through  the  gorges  behind. 

The  scene  changes  to  the  Valkyries'  rocky  home.  Through  the 
drifting  clouds  come  riding  the  eight  sisters  of  Brunnhilde,  in  full 
armor  each,  and  each  bearing  before  her  the  body  of  some  slain 
hero.  They  await  Brunnhilde.  She,  fleeing  from.  Wotan's  pursuit, 
at  last  arrives.  She  implores  them  to  shield  Sieglinde  from  the 
wrath  of  the  god,  but  unsuccessfully  ;  and  then  she  urges  Sieglinde 
to  fly.  At  first,  benumbed  by  despair,  the  widowed  woman  refuses  ; 
but  when  Brunnhilde  mentions  the  child  that  is  to  be  born  —  the 
world's  most  glorious  hero  —  she  consents. 

"  Him  thou  shalt  bear,  thy  son  and  Siegmund's.  For  him  ward 
thou  well  these  mighty  splinters  of  his  father's  sword.  He  shall 
weld  them  anew  and  swing  the  victorious  blade !  His  name  from  me 
let  him  take  —  '  Siegfried' ;  for  Siegfried  in  tnwnph  shall  live  !  " 

Comforted  and  hopeful,  Sieglinde  betakes  herself  to  that  forest 
far  to  the  east,  where  the  Nibelung's  hoard  had  been  borne  by  Faf- 
ner.  There,  in  dragon's  form,  he  guarded  the  gold  and  the  Ring ; 
and  thither  Wotan  is  not  likely  to  pursue. 


THE  RING  OF  THE  NIBELUNG  42  I 

It  thunders  and  lightens.  Wotan,  raging  terribly,  strides  from 
crag  to  crag.  The  other  Valkyries  are  driven  from  the  scene. 
Brijnnhilde  hears  her  doom : 

"  The  heavenly  host 

No  more  shall  know  thee ; 

Outcast  art  thou 

From  the  clan  of  the  gods : 
The  bond  by  thee  has  been  broken ; 
Henceforth  from  sight  of  my  face  art  thou  banned !  " 

Immortal,  she  had  followed  the  might  of  love  ;  mortal,  now  she 
shall  sleep,  and  that  sleep  shall  endure  till  one  comes  to  awaken  her ; 
and  to  him,  whosoe'er  it  may  be,  she  shall  be  subject  thenceforth. 
The  Valkyrie  drops  to  her  knees  : 

"Ah,  let  no  craven  awake  me !  "  she  cries.  "Surround  me  with 
horrors,  with  fires  that  shall  fright :  that  none  but  the  most  fearless 
of  heroes  may  find  me  here  on  the  fell !  " 

Wotan  accedes  to  her  petition.  He  kisses  her  on  both  eyes  and 
lays  her  unconscious,  asleep,  in  the  shade  of  a  broad-branching  fir 
tree.    Then,  — 

"  Appear !  Come,  waving  fire, 
And  wind  thee  in  flames  round  the  fell ! 
Loge,  Loge,  appear !  " 

A  sea  of  flames  encircles  the  spot,  and  Wotan  proclaims  : 

"  He  who  my  spear-point's 
Sharpness  feareth 
Shall  cross  not  this  flaming  fire !  " 

Alone,  under  her  long  steel  shield,  sleeps  the  Valkyrie. 

287.  Siegfried.  The  drama  of  Siegfried  opens  in  the  cavern  of 
Mime,  in  the  forest  "  far  to  the  east"  to  which  Sieglinde  had  fled. 
Mime,  the  dwarf,  is  he  whom  erstwhile  his  Nibelung  brother,  Albe- 
rich,  then  lord  of  the  Ring,  had  held  in  thrall  at  the  bottom  of  the 
Rhine,  Some  years  before  the  events  represented  in  this  play,  the 
dwarf  had  found  Sieglinde  dying  in  the  woods,  and  had  received 
from  her  Siegfried,  her  newborn  son,  and  with  him  the  pieces  of 
Siegmund's  broken  sword,  Nothung. 


42  2  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Young  Siegfried,  noble,  proud,  and  strong,  has  been  nurtured 
in  ignorance  of  his  Hneage  and  destiny,  as  Mime's  son.  But  of 
that  Hneage  and  destiny  the  cunning  dwarf  is  well  aware ;  and 
while  he  trains  Siegfried  to  doughty  deeds,  he  ceaselessly  forges 
at  the  splinters  of  the  sword,  hoping  to  reweld  them  himself  and 
through  Siegfried's  might  to  win  victory  over  Fafner,  the  present 
lord  of  the  Ring,  and  so  achieve  unmeasured  wealth  and  the  mas- 
tery of  the  world.  But  Siegfried  despises  his  foster-father  and 
seeks  ever  to  discover  the  stoiy  of  his  own  descent.  The  attempts 
of  Mime  to  shape  anew  the  pieces  of  Nothung  fail ;  and  he  daily 
forges  other  swords,  which  Siegfried  scorns  and  breaks  at  the  first 
trial.  In  the  course  of  time,  however,  there  comes  to  Mime's  cave  a 
"Wanderer"  —  it  is  Wotan  himself  —  and  tells  the  dwarf  that 
only  one,  a  man  who  knows  not  fear,  can  remake  the  all-conquer- 
ing sword.  He  tells  him,  too,  of  the  mighty  spear,  fashioned  of 
the  world  ash  tree's  hallowed  branches,  with  which  he,  Wotan,  rules 
the  earth.  But  no  word  he  says  of  the  doom  that  is  to  befall  that 
spear  at  the  blow  of  the  conquering  sword,  — -  the  doom,  forsooth, 
of  the  gods  themselves. 

Mime,  after  trying  in  vain  to  arouse  in  Siegfried  the  sense  oi 
fear,  suggests  to  the  youth  that  he  tr)^  to  reforge  Nothung.  Sieg- 
fried seizes  the  splinters,  pounds  them,  and  files  them  to  powder ; 
melts  them  over  the  charcoal  of  the  ash  tree's  stem,  and,  singing 
at  his  work,  refashions  the  sword.  While  this  is  doing,  through 
the  pauses  of  Siegfried's  song  can  be  heard  the  voice  of  Mime, 
muttering:  "The  sword  will  be  forged  .  .  .  and  Fafner  van- 
quished. .  .  .  When  Siegfried  has  slain  that  dragon  ...  he  will 
be  athirst.  ...  I  will  brew  him  a  drink.  .  .  .  One  drop  will  lay 
him  in  sleep.  .  .  .  With  the  sword  that  he  forges  I  '11  kill  him. 
.   .   .  Mine,  then,  the  Ring  and  the  hoard !  " 

At  last  the  sword  is  shaped  and  sharpened.  Siegfried  swings  it 
before  him  : 

"  Nothung,  Nothung,  conquering  sword  ;  again  to  life  have  I 
woke  thee  !  Strike  at  the  traitor,  cut  down  the  knave  !  See,  Mime, 
thou  smith  ;  so  sunders  Siegfried's  sword !  "  and  he  strikes  the 
anvil  in  twain  from  top  to  bottom.  It  falls  asunder  with  a  great 
noise,  and  the  dwarf  drops  with  terror  to  the  ground. 


THE  RING  OF  THE  NIBELUNG  423 

The  scene  changes  to  the  forest  in  front  of  Fafner's  cave. 
Alberich  is  watching  gloomily  by,  and  the  Wanderer  rides  in  to 
taunt  him  with  false  hope  of  the  Ring. 

"A  hero  nears  to  set  free  the  hoard,"  says  the  W^anderer.  "  Faf- 
ner  will  fall.  Perchance  if  Alberich  warn  the  dragon,  he  may  win 
the  Ring  in  token  of  gratitude." 

Alberich  makes  the  approaches.  Fafner  yawns  :  "I  have  and  I 
hold  ;  let  me  slumber  !  " 

With  scornful  laughter  the  Wanderer  rides  away.  But  "one 
day,"  snarls  Alberich,  —  "one  day  shall  I  see  you  all  fade,  ye 
light-hearted  eternals.  The  wise  one  keepeth  his  watch  and  surely 
worketh  his  spite  !  " 

As  the  day  breaks  Siegfried  and  Mime  enter,  Siegfried  wearing 
his  sword  hung  in  a  girdle  of  rope,  and  blithely  blowing  a  horn. 
Fafner,  in  the  shape  of  a  huge  lizardlike  dragon,  comes  out  of  his 
cave  and  forward  to  the  stream  for  water.  At  sight  of  the  non- 
chalant youth  piping  his  wood-notes  gay,  the  monster  emits  a  snort 
that  serves  his  need  of  a  laugh,  —  "I  came  for  drink  ;  now,  too,  I 
find  food." 

The  conflict  is  speedily  joined.  More  than  once  Siegfried  is 
well-nigh  lost ;  but  his  chance  comes.  The  dragon  exposes  his 
heart,  and  Siegfried  sinks  his  sword  into  it  up  to  the  hilt.  In 
the  moment  of  death,  Fafner  warns  the  young  hero  to  beware  of 
him  who  stirred  him  to  the  fight.  But  Siegfried  pays  little  heed. 
The  blood  of  the  dragon  bespatters  his  hand  ;  it  burns.  Sieg- 
fried involuntarily  carries  his  hand  to  his  lips.  There  is  a  wood 
bird  singing.  Siegfried  regards  him  with  astonishment.  "Almost," 
he  says,  "  it  seems  as  wood  birds  were  speaking  to  me,"  and  he 
hearkens. 

"  Hei !  "  sings  the  wood  bird  ;  "  now  Siegfried  owns  all  the 
Nibelung's  hoard.  Let  him  but  search  the  cavern,  and  hoard, 
Tarnhelm,  and  Ring  will  make  him  the  lord  of  the  world  !  " 

"Thanks,  dearest  birdling,"  Siegfried  replies,  and  possesses  him- 
self of  Tarnhelm  and  Ring.    The  hoard  he  leaves  where  it  was. 

"  Hei !  "  sings  the  wood  bird  ;  "  Ring  and  Tarnhelm  Siegfried 
has  won.  Now  let  him  not  trust  the  treacherous  tongue  of  the 
falsest  of  friends  !  " 


424  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

No  sooner  is  that  warning  given  than  Mime,  who  has  mean- 
while been  wranghng  with  Alberich  over  the  division  of  the  spoils, 
creeps  forward. 

"  See,  thou  art  weary ;  drink  of  the  broth  I  have  brewed,  and 
take  rest,"  he  says  smilingly  to  Siegfried.  But  under  his  breath 
he  is  muttering,  "Drink,  and  choke  thee  to  death,"  as  he  pours 
the  draft  into  the  drink  horn  and  offers  it. 

"  Taste  thou  my  sword,  loathsome  babbler !  "  cries  the  young 
hero,  and  strikes  him  dead  at  a  blow  ;  then  pitches  his  body  on  top 
of  the  hoard  and  stops  up  the  mouth  of  the  cave  with  the  grinning 
corpse  of  the  dragon. 

"  Thanks,  friendliest  birdling !  But  happiness  yet  have  I  not. 
Brothers  and  sisters  hast  thou  ;  but  I  —  am  so  alone  ;  nor  brother 
nor  sister,  nor  father  nor  mother.  One  comrade  had  I  ;  he  laid  out 
to  catch  me,  and  now  I  have  slain  him,  perforce.  Ah,  birdling,  find 
me  a  comrade  true  !  " 

"  Hei !  "  chatters  the  wood  bird  ;  "a  glorious  bride  for  Siegfried 
have  I.  On  a  rocky  fastness  she  sleeps,  and  guarded  by  fire  is  her 
home.  Who  fighteth  the  flames  wakens  the  maid  ;  Briinnhilde, 
Brijnnliiide,  he  wins  for  his  own  !  " 

"Where'er  thou  fliest,  follows  my  foot,"  shouts  Siegfried,  bub- 
bling with  joy. 

The  scene  changes.  In  a  wild  spot  at  the  foot  of  a  rocky  moun- 
tain Wotan,  the  Wanderer,  desiring  the  success  of  Siegfried  and 
still  knowing  that  that  success  involves  the  doom  of  the  gods,  seeks 
counsel  from  Erda.  The  all-wise  one  refuses  to  answer,  —  refers 
him  to  the  Norns.  "  The  Norns  are  waking,  they  wind  the  rope. 
The  Norns  will  give  thee  answer  !  " 

"Ah,  no!"  replies  the  Wanderer.  "Their  weaving  is  ever  in 
thrall  to  fate.  To  thee  I  come  that  I  may  learn  how  to  stay  the 
wheel  that  is  already  rolling." 

"Ask  Briinnhilde!  " 

"  In  vain,  All-wise  One  ;  the  piercing  sting  of  care  was  planted 
by  thee.  Ruin  and  downfall  were  foretold  by  thee.  Say  to  me,  now, 
how  a  god  may  conquer  his  care !  " 

"Thou  art  —  not  what  thou  hast  said."  No  more  will  Erda 
vouchsafe. 


THE  RING  OF  THE  NIBELUNG  425 

Not  what  he  has  said !  Then,  surely,  the  gods  are  beyond  re- 
demption. But  not  even  so  shall  the  harvest  be  reaped  by  the 
Nibelungs.  "  Nay,  to  the  Volsung  shall  be  my  heritage,"  decrees 
Wotan  :  "to  him  who  has  known  me  never,  though  chosen  by 
me  ;  to  the  lad  of  dauntless  daring,  though  untaught  by  my  coun- 
sel. Pure  from  greed,  gladdened  by  love-dreams,  he  has  won  the 
Nibelung's  Ring.   Against  him  the  curse  of  Alberich  cannot  avail." 

While  yet  the  Wanderer  is  speaking,  Erda  descends  to  endless 
sleep.  Dawn  illumines  the  scene,  Siegfried's  bird  comes  fluttering 
to  the  foreground,  but,  frighted  by  vision  of  the  god,  takes  wing  and 
disappears.     Siegfried  presses  on. 

"  My  birdling  has  flown  from  my  eyes,"  he  remarks.  "  I  needs 
must  find  out  the  rock  for  myself," 

"The  way  that  the  wood  bird  pointed,"  announces  Wotan,  en- 
countering him,  "  shalt  thou  not  pass  !  " 

"  Hoho  !  Wouldst  thou  stay  me  ?  Who  art  thou,  then,  that  here 
withstandest  ?  " 

"  Fear  the  fell's  defender  !  By  my  might  the  slumbering  maid  is 
held  enchained.  He  who  should  wake  her,  he  who  should  win  her, 
mightless  would  make  me  forever.    Go  back,  then,  foolhardy  boy ! " 

As  the  Wanderer  speaks,  the  splendor  spreads  from  the  flame- 
girdled  rock  above, 

"  Go  back  thyself,  thou  babbler  !  There  where  the  fires  are  blaz- 
ing,—  to  Briinnhilde  now  must  I  hie!"  And  Siegfried  pushes 
fonvard. 

The  Wanderer  bars  the  way  to  the  mountain  :  "Once  already 
that  sword  of  thine,  Nothung,  has  broken  on  the  haft  of  this  sacred 
spear !  " 

"  'T  is,  then,  my  father's  slayer  !  "  thinks  Siegfried  ;  and  nothing 
loath  to  face  that  foe,  he  raises  the  new-forged  sword  and  strikes 
to  pieces  the  All-father's  spear  ! 

"Fare  on,"  says  Wotan,  quietly  picking  up  the  fragments,  "I 
cannot  withstand  thee." 

The  god  vanishes  in  darkness.  The  hero,  light-hearted,  blowing 
his  horn,  scales  the  cliffs,  passes  the  fire,  —  wakes  Briinnhilde. 
She,  at  first,  with  maidenly  might  struggles  against  his  passion  for 
her  and  her  growing  tenderness  for  him.  She  deplores  the  byrnie, 


426  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

shield  and  helm,  symbols  of  her  godhead,  that  he  has  torn  from 
her.    But,  mortal  now,  she  surrenders  to  a  mortal's  love  : 

"  O  Siegfried,  Siegfried,  child  of  delight. 
Love  thyself,  —  and  turn  thee  from  me ; 
Oh,  bring  not  thine  own  to  naught !  " 

And  Siegfried  : 

"I  —  love  thee :  didst  thou  but  love  me  ! 

Mine  am  I  no  more:  oh,  would  that  thou  wert  mine!  .  .  . 

Waken,  O  maid ;  live  in  laughter : 

Sweetest  delight,  be  mine,  be  mine ! " 

Then  she,  with  a  joyful  cry  : 

"  Oh,  child  of  delight !   Oh,  glorious  hero  ! 

Thou  foolish  lord  of  loftiest  deeds  ! 

Laughing  must  I  love  thee, 

Laughing  welcome  my  blindness ; 

Laughing  let  us  be  lost. 

With  laughter  go  down  to  death.  .  .  . 
Farewell,  Valhalla's  light-giving  world  : 
Thy  stately  towers  let  fall  in  dust ! 
Farewell,  O  glittering  pomp  of  the  gods  ! 
Complete  your  bliss,  eternal  host ! 
Now  rend,  ye  Norns,  your  rope  of  runes : 
Dusk  of  Gods  in  darkness  arise ; 
Night  of  downfall  dawn  in  mist !  " 

And  thus,  turning  their  backs  on  Valhalla,  and  radiant  with  the 
light  of  human  love,  the  twain,  laughing,  face  toward  death. 

288.  The  Twilight  of  the  Gods.  The  play  opens  with  a  prelude. 
l>y  the  V^alkyrie's  rock  sit  the  three  Norns  and  sing  of  past,  pres- 
ent, and  future,  weaving  through  the  night  their  rope  of  runes. 
As  they  foretell  the  burning  of  Valhalla  and  the  end  of  the  gods, 
the  rope  breaks,  and  the  Norns  disappear  into  the  earth. 

The  sun  rises,  and  in  the  first  act  of  the  play  Siegfried  and 
Rriinnhilde  enter  from  their  cave.  She  sends  him  forth  in  quest 
of  heroic  adventures  in  the  world,  giving  him  her  horse,  Grane, 
and  receiving  from  him  the  Ring  as  a  pledge  of  his  love. 

The  scene  changes,  and  we  behold  the  interior  of  the  Gibi- 
chungs'  hall  on  the  Rhine.  Gunther  and  Gutrune,  his  sister,  are  in 
converse  with  Hagen,  their  half  brother,  —  dark  and  treacherous 


THE  RING  OF  THE  NIBELUNG  427 

son  of  Grimhilde,  their  mother,  and  of  Alberich  the  Nibelung, 
erst\vhile  owner  of  the  Ring.  Hagen  alone  knows,  it  would  seem, 
that  Siegfried  has  already  ridden  through  the  flames  and  won 
Briinnhilde.  The  others  know  merely  that  that  hero  has  slain 
Fafner  and  is  lord  of  the  Tarnhelm,  hoard,  and  Ring.  Hagen, 
anxious  to  regain  the  heritage  of  the  Nibelungs,  urges  marriage 
on  Gunther,  naming  Briinnhilde  as  a  fitting  bride  for  him.  As, 
however,  Siegfried  alone  can  pass  through  the  fire  to  come  at  her, 
he  proposes  that  Gutrune  shall  win  Siegfried's  love  and  induce  him 
to  ser\^e  Gunther.  Siegfried's  horn  is  heard,  and  he  presently  en- 
ters and  is  made  welcome.  Gutrune,  at  the  instigation  of  Hagen, 
brings  Siegfried  a  potion  which  causes  him  to  love  her,  and  drives 
clean  out  of  his  mind  all  memory  of  Briinnhilde.  In  the  madness 
of  his  passion  for  Gutrune,  Siegfried  swears  blood-brotherhood 
with  Gunther,  and  promises  by  the  aid  of  the  Tarnhelm  to  make 
Briinnhilde  Gunther's  wife,  if  only  in  return  Gutrune  shall  be  his. 
The  newly  sworn  "  brothers  "  depart  for  Briinnhilde's  rock. 

In  the  next  scene  we  are  again  before  the  home  of  Briinnhilde. 
Waltraute,  a  Valkyrie,  comes  to  beg  Briinnhilde  to  give  back  the 
Ring  to  the  Rhine-maidens,  and  so  avert  the  doom  of  the  gods. 

"  What,  then,  aileth  the  immortals  .''  "  cries  Briinnhilde  in  alarm. 

"  Since  Wotan  doomed  thee,  no  more  hath  he  sent  us  to  war,"  re- 
plies Waltraute.  ""  No  more  hath  he  gathered  the  souls  of  the  slain 
about  him  in  Valhalla.  Alone  he  has  ridden  unceasing  through  the 
world.  But,  one  day,  home  he  came  bearing  his  spear  all  splintered 
in  his  hand.  Wordless,  with  a  sign  he  bade  Valhalla's  heroes  hew 
the  world  ash  tree  in  pieces  and  pile  it  like  firewood  around  the 
Hall  of  the  Blest.  And  from  that  hour  silent  he  sits  on  his  throne, 
about  him  the  awe-struck  gods  and  heroes,  the  war-maids  cowering 
at  his  knees.  None  tastes  the  apples  of  youth.  To-day  W'otan 
remembered  thee ;  his  eye  grew  soft  and,  as  dreaming,  he  spake : 

'  If  once  more  the  daughters  of  Rhine 
Should  win  from  her  finger  the  Ring, 

Of  the  load  of  the  curse 
Were  the  world  and  immortals  made  free.' 

Briinnhilde,  yield  up  the  Ring,  and  end  all  the  grief  of  the  world  !  " 


428  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

'"  The  Ring?  "  wails  Briinnhilde,  "  Knowest  thou  what  'tis  to 
me  ?  One  flash  of  its  fire  outvalues  all  heaven's  delight ;  for  the 
gleam  of  that  Ring  is  Siegfried's  love  ! 

"  From  love  I  never  shall  turn ; 
Of  his  love  they  never  shall  rob  me, 

Though  into  ruins 
Valhalla's  splendor  should  fall !  " 

Thus  Briinnhilde  refuses,  and  sends  Waltraute  away  to  take  her 
defiance  to  Valhalla. 

But  retribution  is  swift,  for  on  the  moment  Siegfried,  changed  to 
Gunther's  shape  by  the  Tarnhelm,  comes  and  claims  Briinnhilde 
as  his  bride.  She  resists  and  threatens  him  with  the  Ring.  But 
now  Siegfried,  forgetful  of  the  past,  struggles  for  another  with  his 
own  dear  wife,  overcomes  her,  and  wrests  the  Ring  from  her.  He 
then  commands  her  to  go  into  the  cave,  whither,  after  drawing  his 
sword  to  lay  between  them  as  symbol  of  his  loyalty  to  Gunther,  he 
follows  her. 

The  second  act  is  outside  the  Gibichungs'  hall.  It  is  early  morn- 
ing of  the  next  day.  After  a  short  scene  in  which  the  ever-plotting 
Alberich  urges  Hagen  to  get  the  Ring,  Siegfried  returns  and  tells 
Hagen  and  Gutrune  of  the  winning  of  Briinnhilde  and  her  approach 
with  Gunther.  Hagen  calls  together  the  vassals  to  welcome  Gunther 
and  his  bride.  The  royal  pair  presently  arrive  and  are  received  with 
loud  acclaim.  Straightway  Briinnhilde  recognizes  Siegfried  (who, 
however,  does  not  know  her)  and,  seeing  the  Ring  on  Siegfried's 
finger,  she  asks  Gunther  what  he  has  done  with  the  ring  he  took 
from  her.  His  confusion  reveals  the  truth  to  her,  and  she  proclaims 
that  she  is  wedded  to  Siegfried  and  not  to  Gunther.  Siegfried 
swears  on  the  point  of  Hagen's  spear  that  her  accusation  is  false. 
She  repeats  it,  taking  the  same  oath.  Siegfried,  Gutrune,  and  their 
vassals  go  out  to  prepare  for  the  double  wedding  celebration  ;  Gun- 
ther, Hagen,  and  Briinnhilde  remaining  solemnly  condemn  Siegfried 
to  death  for  what  seems  treacheiy  to  one  and  all.  Hagen,  left  alone, 
glories  in  the  prospect  of  regaining  the  Ring. 

The  third  act  discloses  an  open  place  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine, 
The  three  Rhine-maidens  pray  to  the  sun  for  the  return  of  the 


THE  RING  OF  THE  NIBELUNG  429 

Rhine-gold.  Siegfried,  who  has  strayed  from  his  companions  on  a 
hunting  expedition,  comes  to  the  river  bank.  The  maidens  unsuc- 
cessfully attempt,  by  wiles  and  warnings  of  ill  fate,  to  get  the  Ring 
from  him,  and  finally  swim  away,  foretelling  his  death  that  very  day. 
Gunther,  Hagen,  and  their  vassals  come  to  the  place,  and  all  sit 
down  to  rest.  At  Hagen's  suggestion  Siegfried  relates  the  stoty  of 
his  life.  But,  lo  !  when  he  comes  to  the  episode  of  his  first  passage 
through  the  fire,  a  draft  given  him  by  Hagen  restores  his  memory, 
and  innocently  he  tells  of  the  waking  and  winning  of  Briinnhilde. 
All  start  up  in  amaze  ;  Hagen  stabs  Siegfried  in  the  back  with  his 
spear,  and  steals  away.  Siegfried  falls,  and  after  a  few  words  sung 
to  Briinnhilde,  whom  he  sees  as  in  a  vision,  he  dies.  His  body  is 
placed  on  a  bier  and  borne  away  by  the  vassals  with  great  pomp 
and  state  as  the  sun  sets. 

In  the  last  scene  we  have  the  interior  of  the  Gibichungs'  hall 
as  before.  It  is  night.  Gutrune  comes  from  her  chamber  anxious 
for  Siegfried.  Presently  Hagen's  voice  is  heard  calling  for  torches 
to  light  the  returning  hunters.  He  enters  and,  in  reply  to  Gutrune's 
questions,  tells  her  that  Siegfried  has  been  slain  by  a  wild  boar. 
Then  come  the  vassals,  bearing  Siegfried's  body.  It  is  placed  on  a 
bier  in  the  center  of  the  hall.  Hagen  claims  the  Ring  as  his  right 
for  slaying  Siegfried,  but  Gunther  defies  him  to  touch  Gutrune's 
heritage.  They  fight  and  Gunther  falls.  As  Hagen  approaches  the 
corpse  to  take  the  Ring,  the  dead  Siegfried  raises  his  arm  threat- 
eningly. All  start  back  in  horror,  and  just  then  Briinnhilde  enters 
and  comes  down  to  the  bier.  Here,  after  ordering  a  pyre  tc  be 
built  on  the  river  bank,  she  sings  a  funeral  song  over  Siegfried. 
The  body,  from  which  she  has  taken  the  Ring,  is  then  placed  on 
the  pyre.  Setting  the  Ring  on  her  own  finger,  Briinnhilde  calls  on 
the  Rhine-maidens  to  take  it  in  turn  from  her  ashes: 

"  Let  fire,  burning  this  hand 
Cleanse,  too,  the  Ring  from  its  curse." 

She  applies  the  torch  : 

"  So  cast  I  the  brand 
On  Valhall's  glittering  walls.  — 
When  ye  see  in  the  kindling  fire, 
Siegfried  and  Briinnhild'  consumed ; 


430  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

When  ye  see  the  river-daughters 
Bear  the  Ring  away  to  the  deep : 

To  northward  then 

Look  through  the  night ! 

When  the  heaven  there  gleams 

With  a  holy  glow, 

Then  know  ye  all 
That  Valhall's  end  ye  behold !  ■' 

Her  horse  is  brought.  She  mounts  it  and  springs  into  the  flames, 
which  flare  up  and  seize  on  the  hall  itself.  The  river  overflows 
and  rolls  over  the  fire.  The  Rhine-maidens  swim  up  and  regain 
the  Ring.  Hagen  rushes  into  the  flood  to  get  it  from  them,  but 
is  dragged  down  to  the  depths  by  their  arms  as  they  swim  away. 
In  the  sky  is  seen  a  vision  of  Valhalla  in  flames. 

The  breed  of  the  gods  is  gone  like  breath.  The  loveless  Ring 
has  worked  its  curse.  Each  in  his  turn  its  lords  have  bitten  the 
dust.    And  Briinnhilde  reads  the  moral : 

"  Not  goods  nor  gold 

Nor  glory  of  gods 
Can  fashion  a  blessing  for  weal, 
Can  win  a  blessing  from  woe,  — 

But  Love  alone !  " 


PART   II 

THE  HISTORY  OF  MYTH 

CHAPTER  XXX 

THE  ORIGIN  AND  ELEMENTS  OF  MYTH 

289.  Kinds  of  Myth.  If  we  classify  the  preceding  stories  ac- 
cording to  the  reason  of  their  existence,  we  observe  that  they  are 
of  two  kinds,  —  explanatory  and  aesthetic. 

(i)  Explanatory  viytJis  are  the  outcome  of  naive  guesses  at  the 
truth,  of  mistaken  and  superstitious  attempts  to  satisfy  the  curiosity 
of  primitive  and  unenlightened  peoples,  to  unveil  the  mysteries  of 
existence,  make  clear  the  facts  of  the  universe  and  the  experiences 
of  life,  to  account  for  religious  rites  and  social  customs  of  which 
the  origin  is  forgotten,  to  teach  the  meaning  and  the  histoiy  of 
things.  There  are  certain  questions  that  nearly  ever}^  child  and 
every  savage  asks  :  What  is  the  world  and  what  is  man }  Who 
made  them  1  What  else  did  the  maker  do  t  and  what  the  first 
men  ?  Whence  came  the  commodities  of  life  t  Why  do  we  cele- 
brate certain  festivals,  practice  certain  ceremonials,  observe  solem- 
nities, and  partake  of  sacraments,  and  bow  to  this  or  the  other  god  .? 
What  is  death,  and  what  becomes  of  us  after  death  }  The  answers 
to  such  questions  crystallized  themselves  gradually  into  stories  of 
the  creation,  of  the  gods,  and  of  the  heroes  —  forefathers  of  men, 
but  magnified,  because  unfamiliar,  mysterious,  and  remote. 

Old  literatures  abound  in  explanatory  myths  of  so  highly  imagi- 
native a  character  that  we  moderns  are  tempted  to  read  into  them 
meanings  which  probably  they  never  possessed.  For  the  diverse 
and  contradictory  significations  that  have  in  recent  years  been  pro- 
posed for  one  and  the  same  myth  could  not  all,  at  any  one  time, 
have  been  entertained  by  the  myth-makers.    On  the  other  hand, 


432  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

the  current  explanations  of  certain  myths  are  sufficiently  apparent 
to  be  probable.  "To  the  ancients,"  says  John  Fiske/  "the  moon 
was  not  a  lifeless  body  of  stones  and  clods ;  it  was  the  horned 
huntress  Artemis,  coursing  through  the  upper  ether,  or  bathing 
herself  in  the  clear  lake  ;  or  it  was  Aphrodite,  protectress  of  lovers, 
born  of  the  sea  foam  in  the  East,  near  Cyprus.  The  clouds  were 
not  bodies  of  vaporized  water ;  they  were  cows,  with  swelling  ud- 
ders, driven  to  the  milking  by  Hermes,  the  summer  wind  ;  or  great 
sheep  with  moist  fleeces,  slain  by  the  unerring  arrows  of  Bellero- 
phon,  the  sun  ;  or  swan-maidens,  flitting  across  the  firmament ; 
Valkyries  hovering  over  the  battle  field  to  receive  the  souls  of  fall- 
ing heroes  ;  or,  again,  they  were  mighty  mountains,  piled  one  above 
another,  in  whose  cavernous  recesses  the  divining  wand  of  the 
storm-god  Thor  revealed  hidden  treasures.  The  yellow-haired  sun, 
Phoebus,  drove  westerly  all  day  in  his  flaming  chariot ;  or,  perhaps, 
as  Meleager,  retired  for  awhile  in  disgust  from  the  sight  of  men  ; 
wedded  at  eventide  the  violet  light  (CEnone,  lole)  which  he  had 
forsaken  in  the  morning  ;  sank  as  Hercules  upon  a  blazing  funeral 
pyre,  or,  like  Agamemnon,  perished  in  a  bloodstained  bath ;  or, 
as  the  fish-god,  Dagon,  swam  nightly  through  the  subterranean 
waters  to  .appear  eastward  again  at  daybreak.  Sometimes  Phae- 
thon,  his  rash,  inexperienced  son,  would  take  the  reins  and  drive 
the  solar  chariot  too  near  the  earth,  causing  the  fruits  to  perish, 
and  the  grass  to  wither,  and  the  wells  to  dry  up.  Sometimes,  too, 
the  great  all-seeing  divinity,  in  his  wrath  at  the  impiety  of  men, 
would  shoot  down  his  scorching  arrows,  causing  pestilence  to  spread 
over  the  land." 

(2)  ^Esthetic  myths  have  their  origin  in  the  universal  desire  for 
amusement,  in  the  revulsion  of  the  mind  from  the  humdrum  of 
actuality.  They  furnish  information  that  may  not  be  practical,  but 
is  delightful ;  they  elicit  emotion  —  sympathy,  tears,  and  laughter 
—  for  characters  and  events  remote  from  our  commonplace  expe- 
rience but  close  to  the  heart  of  things,  and  near  and  significant  and 
enchanting  to  us  in  the  atmosphere  of  imagination  that  embraces 
severed  continents,  inspires  the  dead  with  life,  bestows  color  and 
breath  upon  the  creatures  of  a  dream,  and  wraps  young  and  old 

1  Myths  and  Myth-Makers,  p.  18.    Proper  nouns  have  been  anglicized. 


THE  ORIGIN  AND  ELEMENTS  OF  MYTH  433 

in  the  wonder  of  hearing  a  new  thing.  The  aesthetic  myth,  first, 
removes  us  from  the  sordid  world  of  immediate  and  selfish  needs, 
and  then  unrolls  a  vision  of  a  world  where  men  and  things  exist 
simply  for  the  purpose  of  delighting  us.  And  the  enduring  measure 
of  delight  which  the  aesthetic  myth  affords  is  the  test  of  what  we 
call  its  beauty. 

A  myth,  whether  explanatory  or  aesthetic,  is  of  unconscious 
growth,  almost  never  concocted  with  a  view  to  instruction. 

According  to  their  subjects,  aesthetic  myths  are  either  historic  or 
romantic,  {a)  If  historic,  they  utilize  events  which  have  a  skeleton 
of  fact.  They  supply  flesh  and  sinew  of  divine  or  heroic  adventure 
and  character,  blood  and  breath  of  probability  and  imagination.  In 
historic  myths  the  dependence  of  gods,  heroes,  and  events  upon 
the  stern  necessity  of  an  overruling  power,  of  fate  or  providence, 
is  especially  to  be  observed.    Of  this  class  is  the  Iliad  of  Homer. 

(p)  If  romantic,  the  myths  are  characterized  by  bolder  selection 
or  creation  of  fundamental  events  ;  indeed,  events  appear  to  be 
chosen  with  a  view  to  displaying  or  developing  the  character  of 
the  hero.  In  such  myths  circumstances  are  not  so  important  as 
what  the  hero  does  with  circumstances.  The  hero  is  more  inde- 
pendent than  in  the  historic  myth ;  his  liberty',  his  choice,  —  in 
judgment,  in  conduct,  and  in  feeling,  —  his  responsibility,  are  the 
center  of  interest.  In  romantic  myths  like  the  Odyssey  this  sense 
of  freedom  does  not  impel  the  poet  to  capricious  use  of  his  material. 
But  lesser  bards  than  Homer  have  permitted  their  heroes  to  run 
riot  in  adventures  that  weary  the  imagination  and  offend  the 
moral  judgment. 

290.  Divisions  of  Inquiry.  We  are  next  led  to  ask  how  these 
myths  came  into  existence,  and  how  it  is  that  the  same  myth  meets 
us  under  various  forms  in  literatures  and  among  peoples  widely 
separate  in  time  and  place.  These  are  questions  of  the  Origin 
and  Distribution  of  myths  ;  and  in  this  chapter  we  shall  discuss 
the  former. 

291.  Elements  of  the  Myth.  The  myths  preserved  in  the  litera- 
tures of  many  civilized  nations,  such  as  the  Greek,  present  to  the 
imaginative  and  the  moral  sense  aspects  fraught  with  contradic- 
tion.    In  certain  myths  the  gods  display  themselves  as  beautiful. 


434  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

wise,  and  beneficent  beings ;  in  others  tliey  indulge  in  cruel,  fool- 
ish, and  unbeautiful  practices  and  adventures.  These  contradic- 
tory elements  have  been  called  the  reasonable  and  the  senseless. 
A  myth  of  Mother  Earth  (Demeter)  mourning  the  loss  of  her 
daughter,  the  Springtide,  is  reasonable ;  a  myth  of  Demeter 
devouring,  in  a  fit  of  abstraction,  the  shoulder  of  the  boy  Pelops, 
and  replacing  it  with  ivory,  is  capricious,  apparently  senseless. 
"It  is  this  silly,  senseless,  and  savage  element,"  as  Max  Miiller 
says,  "  that  makes  mythology  the  puzzle  which  men  have  so  long 
found  it." 

292.  Reasonable  Myths.  If  myths  were  always  reasonable,  it 
would  not  be  difficult  to  reach  an  agreement  concerning  some  way 
by  which  they  may  have  come  into  existence. 

Imagination.  If  we  assume  that  the  peoples  who  invented  these 
stories  of  supernatural  beings  and  events  had,  with  due  allowance 
for  the  discrepancy  in  mental  development,  imaginations  like  our 
own,  there  is  nothing  in  the  history  of  reasonable  myths  to  baffle 
our  understanding.  For,  at  the  present  time,  not  only  children 
and  simple-minded  men,  like  sailors  or  mountaineers,  but  culti- 
vated men  of  ordinary  poetic  sensibility,  bestow  attributes  of  life 
upon  inanimate  things  and  abstract  ideas.  The  sun  is  nowadays 
thirsty,  the  ship  is  a  woman,  the  clouds  threaten,  charity  suffereth 
long,  the  waves  are  angry,  time  will  tell,  and  death  swallows  all 
things.  The  sun  still  rises,  and,  as  Mr.  Jasper  maintains,  "  do 
move."  By  personification  we,  every  day,  bestow  the  attributes  of 
human  beings  upon  inanimate  nature,  animals,  and  abstractions. 
By  our  metaphors  we  perpetuate  and  diffuse  the  poetic  illusion  ; 
we  talk  not  perhaps  of  the  arrows  of  Apollo,  but  of  a  sunstroke  ; 
our  poetry  abounds  in  symbols  of  the  moon,  of  the  swift-winged 
wind,  of  the  ravening  sea.  In  our  metonymies  we  use  the  sign 
for  the  thing  signified,  the  crown  for  the  king,  the  flag  for  the 
honor  of  the  country ;  and  the  crown  and  the  flag  are  to-day  pos- 
sessed of  attributes  and  individuality  just  as  efficient  as  those  that 
endowed  the  golden  handmaids  of  Vulcan  or  the  eagle  of  Jove. 
Nor  is  hyperbole  any  less  in  use  among  us  than  it  was  among  the 
ancients ;  we  glorify  our  political  heroes  with  superlatives,  they 
dignified  theirs  with  divinity. 


THE  ORIGIN  AND  ELEMENTS  OF  MYTH  435 

Belief.  But  this  resemblance  in  habits  of  imagination,  while 
it  may  help  us  to  appreciate  the  mental  condition  of  primitive 
peoples,  accentuates  the  distinction  between  our  imagination  and 
theirs.  They,  at  some  time  or  other,  believed  in  these  personifica- 
tions. We  do  not  believe.  But  their  belief  is  easier  to  comprehend 
when  we  remember  that  the  myths  of  savages  are  not  a  deliberate 
invention  of  any  one  individual,  but  are  constructed  by  generations 
of  people,  and  that  many  of  them  cluster  about  beings  who  were 
actually  worshiped.  Among  primitive  nations  the  sense  of  awe  in 
the  presence  of  magnificent  objects  of  nature  —  mountains,  the 
sky,  the  sun,  the  sea  —  is  universal.  It  springs  from  the  fact  that 
savages  do  not  deem  themselves  superior  to  nature.  They  are  not 
conscious  of  souls  whose  flight  is  higher  than  that  of  nature.  On 
the  contrary,  since  sun,  sea,  and  winds  move,  the  savage  invests 
them  with  free  will  and  personality  like  man's.  In  proportion,  how- 
ever, as  their  size  is  grander  or  their  movement  more  tremendous, 
these  objects  must  be  possessed  of  freedom,  personality,  and  power 
exceeding  those  of  man.  Why,  then,  should  not  the  savage  believe, 
of  beings  worthy  of  worship  and  fear  and  gratitude,  all  and  more 
than  all  that  is  accredited  to  man }  Why  not  confer  upon  them 
human  and  superhuman  passions  and  powers  .''  If  we  were  living, 
like  the  Greek  of  old,  close  to  the  heart  of  nature,  such  personifica- 
tion of  natural  powers  would  be  more  easy  for  us  to  appreciate. 

"  If  for  us  also,  as  for  the  Greek,"  says  Ruskin,^  "the  sunrise 
means  daily  restoration  to  the  sense  of  passionate  gladness  and 
of  perfect  life  —  if  it  means  the  thrilling  of  new  strength  through 
every  nerve,  —  the  shedding  over  us  of  a  better  peace  than  the 
peace  of  night,  in  the  power  of  the  dawn,  —  and  the  purging  of 
evil  vision  and  fear  by  the  baptism  of  its  dew ;  —  if  the  sun  itself 
is  an  influence,  to  us  also,  of  spiritual  good,  —  and  becomes  thus 
in  reality,  not  in  imagination,  to  us  also,  a  spiritual  power,  —  we 
may  then  soon  overpass  the  narrow  limit  of  conception  which  kept 
that  power  impersonal,  and  rise  with  the  Greek  to  the  thought  of 
an  angel  who  rejoiced  as  a  strong  man  to  run  his  course,  whose 
voice,  calling  to  life  and  to  labor,  rang  round  the  earth,  and  whose 
going  forth  was  to  the  ends  of  heaven." 

1  Ruskin,  Queen  of  the  Air. 


436  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Regarding  thus  the  rehgious  condition  of  the  savage,  we  may 
comprehend  the  existence  of  myths  and  his  acceptance  of  them. 

293.  Unreasonable  Myths.  But  he  would  maintain  this  attitude 
of  acceptance  only  in  the  matter  of  good  and  beneficent  gods  and 
of  righteous  or  reasonable  myths. 

For  how  could  a  human  being  believe  of  the  god  whom  he 
worshiped  and  revered,  deeds  and  attributes  more  silly  and  more 
shameful  than  man  can  conceive  of  his  fellow  man  ?  When,  there- 
fore, we  find  senseless  and  shameless  myths  existing  side  by  side 
with  stories  of  the  justice  and  righteousness  of  the  same  god,  we 
must  conclude  that,  since  the  worshiper  could  not  believe  both 
sets  of  attributes,  he  preserved  his  religious  attitude  before  the 
good  god  only  by  virtue  of  rejecting  the  senseless  myth. 

A  man's  religious  belief  would  assist  him  to  entertain  only  the 
reasonable  myths.  How,  then,  did  the  senseless  and  cruel  stories 
come  into  existence  .?    And  were  they  ever  believed  .? 

There  are  many  answers  to  these  questions.  They  may,  however, 
be  classified  according  to  the  theory  of  civilization  that  they  assume. 

According  to  the  Theory  of  Deterioi'ation,  or  Human  Depravity, 
man,  although  he  had  in  the  beginning  knowledge  of  common 
facts,  pure  moral  and  religious  ideas,  and  true  poetic  concep- 
tions, has  forgotten,  with  the  lapse  of  time,  the  significance  of 
words,  facts,  men,  and  events,  adopted  corrupt  moral  and  religious 
notions,  and  given  license  to  the  diseased  imagining  of  untrue  and 
unlovely  conceptions. 

According  to  the  TJieory  of  Improvement,  or  Progress,  man, 
beginning  with  crude  dreams  and  fancies  about  experience,  life, 
the  world,  and  God,  has  gradually  developed  truer  and  higher 
conceptions  of  his  own  nature,  of  his  relation  to  the  world  about 
him,  of  duty,  of  art,  and  of  religion. 

294.  Theory  of  Deterioration.  Let  us  consider  first  the  inter 
pretations  of  mythology  that  assume  a  backward  tendency  in  early 
civilization.    They  are : 

(i)  The  Historical,  or  better  called  after  its  author,  Euhemerus 
(B.C.  316),  the  Euhemeristic.  This  explanation  assumes  that 
myths  of  the  gods  are  exaggerated  adventures  of  historic  indi- 
viduals, chieftains,  medicine  men,  heroes ;  and  that  supernatural 


THE  ORIGIN  AND  ELEMENTS  OF  MYTH  457 

events  are  distortions  of  natural  but  wonderful  occurrences.  In 
"fact,  it  attributes  to  our  forefathers  a  disease  of  the  memory  which 
prompted  them  to  pervert  facts.  Jupiter,  Odin,  and  Hercules  were 
accordingly  men  who,  after  death,  had  been  glorified,  then  deified, 
then  invested  with  numerous  characteristics  and  adventures  appro- 
priate to  their  exalted  conditions  of  existence. 

The  custom  of  worshiping  ancestors,  still  existent  in  China  and 
other  countries,  is  adduced  in  support  of  this  method  of  investigat- 
ing myths,  and  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  the  method  explains  the 
origin  and  growth  of  some  myths.  But  it  accounts  rather  for  the 
reasonable  than  the  senseless  element  of  mythical  adventure,  while 
it  fails  to  show  how  savages  come  to  exaggerate  their  heroes  into 
beings  entirely  out  of  the  realm  of  that  actual  experience  which 
is  the  basis  of  the  historical  assumption. 

(2)  The  Philological  Ititei-pi-etation  ^  assumes  also  a  disease  of 
the  memory  by  reason  of  which  men  misunderstand  and  confuse 
the  meanings  of  words,  and  misapply  the  words  themselves.  Pro- 
fessor Max  Miiller  calls  this  affection  a  disease  of  language.  In 
ancient  languages  every  such  word  as  day,  night,  earth,  sim,  spring, 
dawn,  had  an  ending  expressive  of  gender,  which  naturally  pro- 
duced the  corresponding  idea  of  sex.  These  objects  accordingly 
became  in  the  process  of  generations  not  only  persons,  but  male 
and  female.  As,  also,  the  phrases  expressing  the  existence  or  the 
activity  of  these  natural  objects  lost  their  ancient  signification 
under  new  colloquial  coloring,  primitive  and  simple  statements  of 
natural  events  acquired  the  garb  and  dignity  of  elaborate  and  often 
incongiiious  narratives,  no  longer  about  natural  events,  but  about 
persons.  Ancient  language  may,  for  instance,  have  said  sunrise 
follows  the  dazvn.  The  word  for  sun  was  masculine  ;  the  word  for 
dawn,  feminine.  In  time  the  sentence  came  to  mean,  Apollo,  the 
god  of  the  sun,  chases  Daphne,  the  maiden  of  the  glowing  dawn. 
But  the  word.  Daphne,  meant  also  a  laurel  that  burned  easily, 
hence  might  readily  be  devoted  to  the  god  of  the  sun.  So  Daphne, 
the  maiden,  assuming  the  form  of  Daphne,  the  laurel,  escaped  the 

1  See  Max  Muller's  Chips  from  a  German  Workshop,  Science  of  Religion,  etc. ;  Cox's 
Aryan  Myths,  and  numerous  articles  by  the  learned  authors  of  Roschers  Ausfiihrliches 
Lexikon. 


438  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

pursuit  of  her  ardent  lover,  by  becoming  the  tree  sacred  to  his 
worship.^  The  merit  of  the  philological  method  is,  that,  tracing 
the  name  of  a  mythical  character  through  kindred  languages,  it 
frequently  ascertains  for  us  the  family  of  the  myth,  brings  to  light 
kindred  forms  of  the  myth,  discovers  in  what  language^  the  name 
was  born,  and  sometimes,  giving  us  the  original  meaning  of  the 
divine  name,  "  throws  light  on  the  legend  of  the  bearer  of  the 
name  and  on  its  origin  and  first  home."  "'^ 

But  unfortunately  there  is  very  often  no  agreement  among 
scholars  about  the  original  meaning  of  the  names  of  mythical 
beings.  The  same  name  is  frequently  explained  in  half  a  dozen 
different  ways.  The  same  deity  is  reduced  by  different  interpreters 
to  half  a  dozen  elements  of  nature.  A  certain  goddess  represents 
now  the  upper  air,  now  light,  now  lightning,  and  yet  again  clouds. 
Naturally  the  attempts  at  construing  her  adventures  must  termi- 
nate in  correspondingly  dissimilar  and  unconvincing  results.  In 
fine,  the  philological  explanation  assumes  as  its  starting  point  mas- 
culine and  feminine  names  for  objects  of  nature.  It  does  not 
attempt  to  show  how  an  object  like  the  ocean  came  to  be  male 
and  not  female,  or  how  it  came  to  be  a  person  at  all.  And  this 
latter,  in  studying  the  origin  of  myths,  is  what  should  first  be  asi 
certained.  We  must  not,  however,  fall  into  the  error  of  supposing 
that  the  philologists  look  for  the  origin  and  growth  of  all  myths 
in  words  and  the  diseases  of  words.  Max  Miiller  grants  that  myth- 
ology does  not  always  create  its  own  heroes,  but  sometimes  lays 
hold  of  real  history.  He  insists  that  mythologists  should  bear  in 
mind  that  there  may  be  in  every  mythological  riddle  elements 
which  resist  etymological  analysis,  for  the  simple. reason  that  their 
origin  was  not  etymological,  but  historical. 

(3)  The  Allegorical  Interpretation  is  akin  to  the  philological  in 
its  results.  It  leads  us  to  explain  myths  as  embodiments  in  sym- 
bolic guise  of  hidden  meaning  :  of  physical,  chemical,  or  astronom- 
ical facts ;  or  of  moral,  religious,  philosophical  truth.  The  stories 
would  at  first  exist  as  allegories,  but  in  process  of  time  would 

1  Max  Miiller,  Essay  on  Comparative  Mythology,  Oxford  Essays,  1S56 ;  Science  of  Reli- 
gion, 2,  548  n. 

2  Andrew  Lang,  Myth,  Ritual,  and  Religion,  i,  24-25,  and  Professor  C.  P.  Tiele,  as  cited 
by  Lang. 


THE  ORIGIN  AND  ELEMENTS  OF  MYTH  439 

come  to  be  understood  literally.  Thus  Cronus,  who  devours  his 
own  children,  is  identified  with  the  power  that  the  Greeks  called 
Chronos  (Time),  which  may  truly  be  said  to  destroy  whatever  it 
has  brought  into  existence.  The  story  of  lo  is  interpreted  in  a 
similar  manner.  lo  is  the  moon,  and  Argus  the  starry  sky,  which, 
as  it  were,  keeps  sleepless  watch  over  her.  The  fabulous  wander- 
ings of  lo  represent  the  continual  revolutions  of  the  moon.  This 
method  of  explanation  rests  upon  the  assumption  that  the  men 
who  made  the  allegories  were  proficient  in  physics,  chemistry, 
astronomy,  etc.,  and  clever  in  allegory ;  but  that,  for  some  un- 
known reason,  their  descendants  becoming  stupid,  knowledge  as 
well  as  wit  deserted  the  race.  In  some  cases  the  myth  was,  with- 
out doubt,  from  the  first  an  allegoiy ;  but  where  the  myth  was 
consciously  fashioned  as  an  allegory,  in  all  probability  it  was  pre- 
served as  such.  It  is  not,  however,  likely  that  allegories  of  deep 
scientific  or  philosophical  import  were  invented  by  savages.  Where 
the  myth  has  every  mark  of  great  antiquity,  —  is  especially  silly 
and  senseless  and  savage,  —  it  is  safe  to  believe  that  any  profound 
allegorical  meaning,  read  into  it,  is  the  work  of  men  of  a  later 
generation,  who  thus  attempted  to  make  reasonable  the  divine  and 
heroic  narratives  which  they  could  not  otherwise  justify  and  of 
whose  existence  they  were  ashamed.  We  find,  moreover,  in  some 
cases  a  great  variety  of  symbolic  explanations  of  the  same  mjth, 
one  with  as  great  claim  to  credence  as  another,  since  they  spring 
from  the  same  source,  —  the  caprice  or  fancy  of  the  expounder. 

Among  the  ancients  Theagenes  of  Rhegium,  six  hundred  years 
before  Christ,  suggested  the  allegorical  theor}-  and  method  of 
interpretation.  In  modern  times  he  has  been  supported  by  Lord 
Bacon,  whose  "  Wisdom  of  the  Ancients  "  treats  myths  as  "  elegant 
and  instructive  fables,"  and  by  many  Germans,  especially  Professor 
Creuzer. 

(4)  The  Theological  Interpretation.  This  premises  that  man- 
kind, either  in  general  or  through  some  chosen  nationality,  received 
from  God  an  original  revelation  of  pure  religious  ideas,  and  that, 
with  the  systematic  and  continued  perversion  of  the  moral  sense, 
this  knowledge  of  truth,  morality,  and  spiritual  religion  fell  into 
corruption.    So  in  Greek  mythology  the  attributes  of  the  various 


440  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

gods  would  be  imperfect  irradiations  of  the  attributes  of  the  one 
God.  A  more  limited  conception  is,  that  all  mythological  legends 
are  derived  from  the  narratives  of  Scripture,  though  the  real  facts 
have  been  disguised  and  altered.  Thus,  Deucalion  is  only  another 
name  for  Noah,  Hercules  for  Samson,  Arion  for  Jonah,  etc.  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh,  in  his  "History  of  the  World,"  says,  "Jubal, 
Tubal,  and  Tubal-Cain  were  Mercuiy,  Vulcan,  and  Apollo,  inven- 
tors of  pasturage,  smithing,  and  music.  The  dragon  which  kept 
the  golden  apples  was  the  serpent  that  beguiled  Eve.  Nimrod's 
tower  was  the  attempt  of  the  giants  against  heaven."  There  are 
doubtless  many  curious  coincidences  like  these,  but  the  theory 
cannot,  without  extravagance,  be  pushed  so  far  as  to  account  for 
any  great  proportion  of  the  stories.  For  many  myths  antedate  the 
scriptural  narratives  of  which  they  are  said  to  be  copies ;  many 
more,  though  resembling  the  scriptural  stories,  originated  among 
peoples  ignorant  of  the  Hebrew  Bible.  The  theory  rests  upon  two 
unproved  assumptions  :  one,  that  all  nations  have  had  a  chance  to 
be  influenced  by  the  same  set  of  religious  doctrines  ;  the  other, 
that  God  made  his  revelation  in  the  beginning  once  for  all,  and 
has  done  nothing  to  help  man  toward  righteousness  since  then. 
The  theological  theory  has  been  advocated  by  Voss  and  other 
Germans  in  the  seventeenth  century,  by  Jacob  Br^^ant  in  1774, 
and  in  this  century  most  ably  by  Gladstone.^ 

295.  We  are  now  ready  for  the  explanation  of  myth-making 
based  upon  the  Theory  of  Progress.  This  is  best  stated  by  Mr. 
Andrew  Lang,^  whose  argiunent  is,  when  possible,  given  in  his 
own  language.  To  the  question  how  the  senseless  element  got  into 
myths,  the  advocates  of  this  theory  answer  that  it  was  in  the  minds 
and  in  the  social  condition  of  the  savages  who  invented  the  myths. 
But  since  we  cannot  put  ourselves  back  in  history  thousands  of 
years  to  examine  the  habits  of  thought  and  life  of  early  savages, 
we  are  constrained  to  examine  whether  anywhere  nowadays  there 
may  exist  "any  stage  of  the  human  intellect  in  which  these  divine 

1  W.  E.  Gladstone,  Homer  and  the  Homeric  Age;  Juventus  Mundi ;  The  Olympian 
Religion,  North  American  Review,  Feb.-May,  1892. 

2  Andrew  Lang,  Myth,  Ritual,  and  Religion,  2  vols.,  London,  1887  ;  and  Encyc.  Brit.,  9th 
ed.,  article.  Mythology.  Mannhardt,  Antike  W'ald-  und  Feldkultus,  Berlin,  1877.  E.  B;  Tylor, 
Anthropology;  Primitive  Culture. 


THE  ORIGIN  AND  ELEMENTS  OF  MYTH  441 

adventures  and  changes  of  men  into  animals,  trees,  stars,  this  behef 
in  seeing  and  talking  with  the  dead,  are  regarded  as  possible  inci- 
dents of  daily  human  life."  As  the  result  of  such  scientific  investi- 
gation, numerous  races  of  savages  have  been  found  who  at  this 
present  day  accept  and  believe  just  such  silly  and  senseless  elements 
of  myth  as  puzzle  us  and  have  puzzled  many  of  the  cultivated 
ancients  who  found  them  in  their  inherited  mythologies.  The 
theory  of  development  is,  then,  that  "the  savage  and  senseless 
element  in  mythology  is,  for  the  most  part,  a  legacy  from  ancestors 
of  civilized  races  who,  at  the  time  that  they  invented  the  senseless 
stories,  were  in  an  intellectual  state  not  higher  than  that  of  our 
contemporary  Australians,  Bushmen,  Red  Indians,  the  lower  races 
of  South  America,  and  other  worse  than  barbaric  people  of  the 
nineteenth  century."  But  what  are  the  characteristics  of  the  men- 
tal state  of  our  contemporary  savages  ?  First  and  foremost,  c7/n- 
osity  that  leads  them  to  inquire  into  the  causes  of  things  ;  and 
second,  credulity  that  impels  them  to  invent  or  to  accept  childish 
stories  that  may  satisfy  their  untutored  experience.  We  find,  more- 
over, that  savages  nowadays  think  of  everything  around  them  as 
having  life  and  the  parts  and  passions  of  persons  like  themselves. 
"  The  sky,  sun,  wind,  sea,  earth,  mountains,  trees,  regarded  as 
persons,  are  mixed  up  with  men,  beasts,  stars,  and  stones  on  the 
same  level  of  personality  and  life."  The  forces  of  nature,  animals, 
and  things  have  for  these  Polynesians  and  Bushmen  the  same 
powers  and  attributes  that  men  have  ;  and  in  their  opinion  men 
have  the  following  attributes  : 

"  I.  Relationship  to  animals  and  ability  to  be  transformed,  and 
to  transform  others,  into  animals  and  other  objects. 

"2.  Magical  accomplishments,  such  as  power  to  call  up  ghosts, 
or  to  visit  ghosts  and  the  region  of  the  dead  ;  power  over  the 
seasons,  the  sun,  moon,  stars,  weather,  and  so  forth."  ^ 

The  stories  of  savages  to-day  abound  in  adventures  based  upon 
qualities  and  incidents  like  these.  If  these  stories  should  survive  in 
the  literature  of  these  nations  after  the  nations  have  been  civilized, 
they  would  appear  senseless  and  silly  and  cruel  to  the  descendants 
of  our  contemporary  savages.    In  like  manner,  "  as  the  ancient 

1  Encyc.  Brit.,  Mythology. 


442  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Greeks,  Egyptians,  and  Norsemen  advanced  in  civilization,  their 
religious  thought  and  artistic  taste  were  shocked  by  myths  which 
were  preserved  by  local  priesthoods,  or  in  ancient  poems,  or  in 
popular  religious  ceremonials.  .  .  .  We  may  believe  that  ancient 
and  early  tribes  framed  gods  like  themselves  in  action  and  in 
experience,  and  that  the  allegorical  element  in  myths  is  the  addi- 
tion of  later  peoples  who  had  attained  to  purer  ideas  of  divinity, 
yet  dared  not  reject  the  religion  of  their  ancestors."  ^  The  sense- 
less element  in  the  myths  would,  by  this  theory,  be,  for  the  most 
part,  a  "  survival."  Instead,  then,  of  deteriorating,  the  races  that 
invented  senseless  myths  are,  with  ups  and  downs  of  civilization, 
intellectually  and  morally  improved,  to  such  extent  that  they  desire 
to  repudiate  the  senseless  element  in  their  mythical  and  religious 
traditions,  or  to  explain  it  as  reasonable  by  way  of  allegory.  This 
method  of  research  depends  upon  the  science  of  mind  —  psychol- 
ogy, and  the  science  of  man  —  anthropology.  It  may  be  called 
the  Anthropological  Method.    The  theory  is  that  of  "  survival." 

According  to  this  theory  many  of  the  puzzling  elements  of  myth 
resolve  themselves  into  survivals  of  primitive  philosophy,  science, 
or  history.  From  the  first  proceed  the  cruder  systems  of  physical 
and  spiritual  evolution,  the  generations  of  gods,  and  the  other-world 
of  ghosts  ;  from  the  second,  the  cruder  attempts  at  explaining  the 
phenomena  of  the  natural  and  animal  world  by  endowing  them 
with  human  and  frequently  magical  powers  ;  from  the  third,  the 
narratives  invented  to  account  for  the  sanctity  of  certain  shrines 
and  rituals,  and  for  tribal  customs  and  ceremonials,  the  origin  of 
which  had  been  forgotten.  These  last  are  known  as  (Etiological 
myths  ;  they  pretend  to  assign  the  aitia,  or  reason,  why  Delphi, 
for  instance,  should  have  the  oracle  of  Apollo,  or  why  the  ritual  of 
Demeter  should  be  celebrated  at  Eleusis  and  in  a  certain  dramatic 
manner. 

It  is  of  course  probable  that  occasionally  the  questionable  ele- 
ment of  the  myth  originated  in  germs  other  than  savage  curiosity 
and  credulity :  for  instance,  in  the  adventures  of  some  great  hero, 
or  in  a  disease  of  language  by  which  statements  about  objects  came 
to  be  understood  as  stories  about  persons,  or  perhaps  in  a  conscious 

1  Chr.  A.  Lobeck,  Aglaophamus :  On  the  Causes  of  Greek  Mythology.    Cited  by  Lang. 


THE  ORIGIN  AND  ELEMENTS  OF  MYTH  443 

allegory,  or,  even,  in  the  perversion  of  some  ancient  purer  form  of 
moral  or  religious  tmth.  But,  in  general,  the  root  of  myth-making 
is  to  be  found  in  the  mental  and  social  condition  of  primitive  man, 
the  confused  personality  that  he  extended  to  his  surroundings,  and 
the  belief  in  magical  powers  that  he  conferred  upon  those  of  his 
tribesmen  who  were  shrewdest  and  most  influential.  This  mental 
condition  of  the  myth-maker  should  be  premised  in  all  scientific 
explanations  of  myth-making. 

The  transition  is  easy  from  the  personification  of  the  elements 
of  nature  and  the  acceptance  of  fictitious  history  to  the  notion  of 
supernatural  beings  presiding  over,  and  governing,  the  diiTerent 
objects  of  nature  —  air,  fire,  water,  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  the 
mountains,  forests,  and  streams  —  or  possessing  marvelous  quali- 
ties of  action,  passion,  virtue,  foresight,  spirituality,  and  vice. 

The  Greeks,  whose  imagination  was  lively,  peopled  all  nature  with 
such  invisible  inhabitants  and  powers.  In  Greece,  says  Wordsworth,^ 

In  that  fair  clime  the  lonely  herdsman,  stretched 
On  the  soft  grass  through  half  a  summer's  day, 
With  music  lulled  his  indolent  repose : 
And,  in  some  fit  of  weariness,  if  he, 
When  his  own  breath  was  silent,  chanced  to  hear 
A  distant  strain,  far  sweeter  than  the  sounds 
Which  his  poor  skill  could  make,  his  fancy  fetched, 
Even  from  the  blazing  chariot  of  the  sun, 
A  beardless  Youth,  who  touched  a  golden  lute. 
And  filled  the  illumined  groves  with  ravishment. 
The  nightly  hunter,  lifting  a  bright  eye 
Up  towards  the  crescent  moon,  with  grateful  heart 
Called  on  the  lovely  wanderer  who  bestowed 
That  timely  light,  to  share  his  joyous  sport : 
And  hence,  a  beaming  Goddess  with  her  Nymphs, 
Across  the  lawn  and  through  the  darksome  grove, 
Not  unaccompanied  with  tuneful  notes 
By  echo  multiplied  from  rock  or  cave, 
Swept  in  the  storm  of  chase ;  as  moon  and  stars 
Glance  rapidly  along  the  clouded  heaven, 
When  winds  are  blowing  strong.    The  traveler  slaked 
His  thirst  from  rill  or  gushing  fount,  and  thanked 

1  Excursion,  Bk.  4. 


444  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

The  Naiad.    Sunbeams,  upon  distant  hills 
Gliding  apace,  with  shadows  in  their  train, 
Might,  with  small  help  from  fancy,  be  transformed 
Into  fleet  Oreads  sporting  visibly. 
The  Zephyrs,  fanning,  as  they  passed,  their  wings. 
Lacked  not,  for  love,  fair  objects  whom  they  wooed 
With  gentle  whisper.    Withered  boughs  grotesque, 
Stripped  of  their  leaves  and  twigs  by  hoary  age. 
From  depth  of  shaggy  covert  peeping  forth 
In  the  low  vale,  or  on  steep  mountain  side ; 
And,  sometimes,  intermixed  with  stirring  horns 
Of  the  live  deer,  or  goat's  depending  beard,  — 
These  were  the  lurking  Satyrs,  a  wild  brood 
Of  gamesome  deities  ;  or  Pan  himself. 
The  simple  shepherd's  awe-inspiring  God. 

The  phases  of  significance  and  beauty  through  which  the  physi- 
cal or  natural  myth  may  develop  are  expressed  with  poetic  grace 
by  Ruskin,  in  his  "'  Queen  of  the  Air."i  The  reader  must,  however, 
guard  against  the  supposition  that  any  myth  has  sprung  into  exist- 
ence fully  equipped  with  physical,  religious,  and  moral  import. 
Ruskin  himself  says,  "  To  the  mean  person  the  myth  always  meant 
little;  to  the  noble  person,  much."  Accordingly,  as  we  know,  to 
the  savage  the  myth  was  savage ;  to  the  devotee  it  became  reli- 
gious ;  to  the  artist,  beautiful ;  to  the  philosopher,  recondite  and 
significant  —  in  the  course  of  centuries. 

"  If  we  seek,"  says  Ruskin,  '"  to  ascertain  the  manner  in  which 
the  story  first  crystallized  into  its  shape,  we  shall  find  ourselves 
led  back  generally  to  one  or  other  of  two  sources  —  either  to  actual 
historical  events,  represented  by  the  fancy  under  figures  personify- 
ing them,  or  else  to  natural  phenomena  similarly  endowed  with  life 
by  the  imaginative  power,  usually  more  or  less  under  the  influence 
of  terror.  The  historical  myths  we  must  leave  the  masters  of 
history  to  follow ;  they,  and  the  events  they  record,  being  yet  in- 
volved in  great,  though  attractive  and  penetrable,  mystery.  But 
the  stars  and  hills  and  storms  are  wdth  us  now,  as  they  were  with 
others  of  old  ;  and  it  only  needs  that  we  look  at  them  with  the 

1  Concerning  which  may  be  accepted  the  verdict  that  Mr.  Ruskin  passes  upon  Payne 
Knight's  SymboHcal  Language  of  Ancient  Art,  "  Not  trustworthy,  being  little  more  than  a 
mass  of  conjectural  memoranda ;  but  the  heap  is  suggestive,  if  well  sifted." 


THE  ORIGIN  AND  ELEMENTS  OF  MYTH  445 

earnestness  of  those  childish  eyes  to  understand  the  first  words 
spoken  of  them  by  the  children  of  men.  And  then,  in  all  the 
most  beautiful  and  enduring  myths,  we  shall  find  not  only  a  literal 
story  of  a  real  person  —  not  only  a  parallel  imagery  of  moral  prin- 
ciple —  but  an  underlying  worship  of  natural  phenomena,  out  of 
which  both  have  sprung,  and  in  which  both  forever  remain  rooted. 
Thus,  from  the  real  sun,  rising  and  setting ;  from  the  real  atmos- 
phere, calm  in  its  dominion  of  unfading  blue  and  fierce  in  its 
descent  of  tempest  —  the  Greek  forms  first  the  idea  of  two  entirely 
personal  and  corporeal  gods  (Apollo  and  Athena),  whose  limbs  are 
clothed  in  divine  flesh,  and  whose  brows  are  crowned  with  divine 
beauty ;  yet  so  real  that  the  quiver  rattles  at  their  shoulder,  and 
the  chariot  bends  beneath  their  weight.  And,  on  the  other  hand, 
collaterally  with  these  corporeal  images,  and  never  for  one  instant 
separated  from  them,  he  conceives  also  two  omnipresent  spiritual 
influences,  of  which  one  illuminates,  as  the  sun,  with  a  constant 
fire,  whatever  in  humanity  is  skillful  and  wise ;  and  the  other,  like 
the  living  air,  breathes  the  calm  of  heavenly  fortitude  and  strength 
of  righteous  anger  into  every  human  breast  that  is  pure  and  brave. 

"  Now,  therefore,  in  nearly  every  [natural]  myth  of  importance, 
.  .  .  you  have  to  discern  these  three  structural  parts  —  the  root 
and  the  two  branches.  The  root,  in  physical  existence,  sun,  or  sky, 
or  cloud,  or  sea ;  then  the  personal  incarnation  of  that,  becoming 
a  trusted  and  companionable  deity,  with  whom  you  may  walk  hand 
in  hand,  as  a  child  with  its  brother  or  its  sister ;  and  lastly,  the 
moral  significance  of  the  image,  which  is  in  all  the  great  myths 
eternally  and  beneficently  true." 

What  Ruskin  calls,  above,  the  historical  m)th  may  be  the  cuhe- 
meristic  transformation  of  real  events  and  personages,  as  of  a  flood 
and  those  concerned  in  it ;  or  it  may  be  the  aetiological  invention 
of  a  story  to  account  for  rituals  of  which  the  origin  has  been  for- 
gotten, as  of  the  Dionysiac  revels,  with  their  teaching  of  liberation 
from  the  sordid  limits  of  mortality.  In  either  case,  especially  the 
latter,  the  imaginative  and  moral  significance  of  the  historical  myth 
has  in  general  developed  with  the  advance  of  civilization. 

Myth,  in  fine,  whether  natural,  historical,  or  spiritual,  "  is  not  to 
be  regarded  as  mere  error  and  folly,  but  as  an  interesting  product 


446  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

of  the  human  mind.  It  is  sham  history,  the  fictitious  narrative  of 
events  that  never  happened."  ^  But  that  is  not  the  full  statement  of 
the  case.  Myth  is  also  actual  history  of  early  and  imperfect  stages 
of  thought  and  belief ;  it  is  the  true  narrative  of  unenlightened 
observation,  of  infantine  gropings  after  truth.  Whatever  reserva- 
tions scholars  may  make  on  other  points,  most  of  them  will  concur 
in  these  :  that  some  myths  came  into  existence  by  a  "  disease  of 
language  "  ;  that  some  were  invented  to  explain  names  of  nations 
and  of  places,  and  some  to  explain  the  existence  of  fossils  and  bones 
that  suggested  prehistoric  animals  and  men  ;  that  many  were  in- 
vented to  gratify  the  ancestral  pride  of  chieftains  and  clans  and 
to  justify  the  existence  of  religious  and  tribal  ceremonials,  and 
the  common  cult  of  departed  souls,  and  that  very  many  obtained 
consistency  and  form  as  explanations  of  the  phenomena  of  nature, 
as  expressions  of  the  reverence  felt  for  the  powers  of  nature,  and 
as  personifications,  in  general,  of  the  passions  and  the  ideals  of 
primitive  mankind." 

1  E.  B.  Tylor,  Anthropology,  p.  387.    New  York,  1881. 

2  See  also  L.  Preller,  Griechische  Mythologie,  i,  19.  Max  Miiller,  Comparative  Mythology. 
Oxford  Essays,  1856,  pp.  1-87  ;  also  Science  of  Religion,  1873,  PP-  335-403 ;  Philosophy  of 
Mythology;  and  Science  of  Language,  7th  ed.,  2,  421-571.  Hermann  Paul,  Grundriss  der 
Germanischen  Philologie,  Bd.  i,  Lfg.  5,  9S2-995,  Mythologie  (von  E.  Mogk).  W.  Y.  Sel- 
lar,  Augustan  Poets.  Louis  Dyer,  Studies  of  the  Gods  in  Greece.  Talfourd  Ely,  Olympus. 
A.  H.  Petiscus,  The  Gods  of  Olympus  (translated  by  Katherine  A.  Raleigh).  E.  Rohde, 
Psyche.    B.  L  Wheeler,  Dionysos  and  Immortality. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

THE  DISTRIBUTION  OF  MYTHS 

296.  Theories  of  Resemblance.  Several  theories  of  the  appear- 
ance of  the  same  explanatory  or  aesthetic  m}'th  under  various 
guises,  in  lands  remote  one  from  another,  have  been  advanced ; 
but  none  of  them  fully  unveils  the  mystery.  The  difficulty  lies 
not  so  much  in  accounting  for  the  similarity  of  thought  or  material 
in  different  stories,  as  for  the  resemblance  in  isolated  incidents  and 
in  the  arrangement  of  incidents  or  plot.  The  principal  theories 
of  the  distribution  of  myths  are  as  follows  : 

(i)  That  the  resemblances  between  the  myths  of  different  nations 
are  purely  accidental.   This  theory  leaves  us  no  wiser  than  we  were, 

(2)  That  the  stories  have  been  borroivcd  by  one  nation  from 
another.  This  will  account  for  exchange  only  between  nations 
historically  acquainted  with  each  other.  It  will  not  account  for 
the  existence  of  the  same  arrangement  of  incidents  in  a  Greek 
myth  and  in  a  Polynesian  romance. 

(3)  That  all  myths,  if  traced  chronologically  backward  and 
geographically  from  land  to  land,  will  be  found  to  have  oj-iginated 
in  India}  This  theory  fails  to  account  for  numerous  stories  cur- 
rent among  the  modern  nationalities  of  Europe,  of  Africa,  and  of 
India  itself.  It  leaves  also  unexplained  the  existence  of  certain 
myths  in  Egypt  many  centuries  before  India  had  any  known  his- 
tory :  such  as,  in  all  probability,  the  Eg)'ptian  myth  of  Osiris. 
The  theory,  therefore,  is  open  to  the  objection  made  to  the  theory 
of  borrowing. 

(4)  That  similar  myths  are  based  upon  Jiistoiical  traditions 
similar  in  various  countries  or  inherited  from  some  mother  coun- 
try. But,  although  some  historical  myths  may  have  descended  from 
a  mother  race,  it  has  already  been  demonstrated  (§  294,  (i))  that 

1  Benfey  and  Cosquin.    See  Lang's  Myth,  Ritual,  and  Religion,  2,  299. 
447 


44S  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

the  historical  (euhemeristic)  hypothesis  is  inadequate.  It  is,  more- 
over, not  Hkely  that  many  historical  incidents,  like  those  related 
in  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey,  happened  in  the  same  order  and 
as  actual  history  in  Asia  Minor,  Ithaca,  Persia,  and  Norway.  But 
we  find  myths  containing  such  incidents  in  all  these  countries. ^ 

(5)  That  the  Aryan  tribes  (from  which  the  Indians,  Persians, 
Phr)'gians,  Greeks,  Romans,  Germans,  Norsemen,  Russians,  and 
Celts  are  descended)  "started  from  a  common  center"  in  the 
highlands  of  Northern  India,  '"  and  that  from  their  ancient  home 
they  must  have  carried  away,  if  not  the  developed  myth,  yet  the 
quickening  germ  from  which  might  spring  leaves  and  fruits,  vary- 
ing in  form  and  hue  according  to  the  soil  to  which  it  should  be 
committed  and  the  climate  under  which  the  plant  might  reach 
maturity."  2  Against  this  theory  it  may  be  urged  that  stories  hav- 
ing only  the  undeveloped  germ  or  idea  in  common  would  not, 
with  any  probability,  after  they  had  been  developed  independently 
of  each  other,  possess  the  remarkable  resemblance  in  details  that 
many  widely  separated  myths  display.  Moreover,  the  assumption 
of  this  common  stock  considers  only  Aryan  tribes  :  it  ignores 
Africans,  Mongolians,  American  Indians,  and  other  peoples  whose 
myths  resemble  the  Aryan,  but  are  not  traceable  to  the  same  orig- 
inal germ.  The  Ajyan  germ-theory  has,  however,  the  merit  of 
explaining  resemblances  between  many  myths  of  different  Ar)^an 
nations. 

(6)  That  the  existence  of  similar  incidents  or  situations  is  to  be 
explained  as  resulting  from  the  common  facts  of  human  thought, 
experience,  and  sentiment.  This  may  be  called  the  psychological 
theory.  It  was  entertained  by  Grimm,  and  goes  hand  in  hand 
with  the  anthropological,  or  "  survivalist,"  explanation  of  the  ele- 
ments of  mj^th.  "  In  the  long  history  of  mankind,"  says  Mr. 
Andrew  Lang,  "it  is  impossible  to  deny  that  stories  may  con- 
ceivably have  spread  from  a  single  center,  and  been  handed  on 
from  races  like  the  Indo-European  and  Semitic  to  races  as  far 
removed  from  them  in  every  way  as  the  Zulus,  the  Australians, 

1  Lang,  Myth,  Ritual,  and  Religion,  2,  300 ;  Cox,  Mythology  of  the  Aryan  Nations,  i,  100. 

2  The  Rev.  Sir  G.  W'.  Cox,  Mythology  of  Aryan  Nations,  i,  99 ;  also,  same  theory,  Max 
Miiller's  Chips  from  a  German  Workshop  ;  Andrew  Lang,  Myth,  Ritual, and  Religion,  2,  297. 


THE  DISTRIBUTION  OF  MYTHS 


449 


the  Eskimos,  the  natives  of  the  South  Sea  Islands.  But  while  the 
possibility  of  the  diffusion  of  myths  by  borrowing  and  transmission 
must  be  allowed  for,  the  hypothesis  of  the  origin  of  myths  in  the 
savage  state  of  the  intellect  supplies  a  ready  explanation  of  their 
wide  diffusion."  Many  products  of  early  art  —  clay  bowls  and 
stone  weapons  —  are  peculiar  to  no  one  national  taste  or  skill, 
they  are  what  might  have  been  expected  of  human  conditions 
and  intelligence.  "  Many  myths  may  be  called  '  human  '  in  this 
sense.  They  are  the  rough  product  of  the  early  human  mind,  and 
are  not  yet  characterized  by  the  differentiations  of  race  and  cul- 
ture. Such  myths  might  spring  up  anywhere  among  untutored 
men,  and  anj^vhere  might  survive  into  civilized  literature."  ^ 

The  distribution  of  myth,  like  its  origin,  is  inexplicable  by  any 
one  theory.  The  discoveiy  of  racial  families  and  of  family  tradi- 
tions narrows  the  problem,  but  does  not  solve  it.  The  existence  of 
the  same  story  in  unrelated  nationalities  remains  a  perplexing  fact, 
towards  the  explanation  of  which  the  theories  of  "  borrowing  "  and 
of  "  similar  historic  tradition,"  while  plausible,  are  but  unsubstanti- 
ated contributions.  And  until  we  possess  the  earliest  records  of 
those  unrelated  nationalities  that  have  similar  myths,  or  until  we 
discover  monuments  and  log  books  of  some  commercial  nation  that 
in  prehistoric  times  circumnavigated  the  globe  and  deposited  on 
remote  shores  and  islands  the  seeds  of  the  parent  mythic  plant,  we 
must  accept  as  our  only  scientific  explanation  the  psychological,  or 
so-called  himian,  theory  :  —  Given  similar  mental  condition  with 
similar  surroundings,  similar  imaginative  products,  called  myths, 
will  result.^ 

1  Encyc.  Brit.,  9th  ed.  Article,  Mythology.  Cf. Tylor's  Primitive  Culture,  i,  369;  Tylor's 
Anthropology,  p.  397. 

2  See  T.  C.  Johnston's  Did  the  Phoenicians  Discover  America  ?    1S92. 


CHAPTER   XXXII 

THE  PRESERVATION  OF   MYTHS 

297.  Traditional  History.  Before  the  introduction  of  writing, 
myths  were  preserved  in  popular  traditions,  in  the  sacred  ceremo- 
nials of  colleges  of  priests,  in  the  narratives  chanted  by  families  of 
minstrels  or  by  professional  bards  wandering  from  village  to  village 
or  from  court  to  court,  and  in  occasional  hymns  sung  by  privileged 
haipists,  like  Demodocus  of  Phaeacia,^  in  honor  of  a  chieftain,  an 
ancestor,  or  a  god.  Many  of  these  early  bards  are  mere  names  to 
us.  Most  of  them  are  probably  as  mythical  as  the  songs  with  which 
they  are  accredited.  The  following  is  a  brief  account  of  mythical 
prophets,  of  mythical  musicians  and  poets,  and  of  the  actual  poets 
and  historians  who  recorded  the  mythologies  from  which  English 
literature  draws  its  classical  myths,  —  the  Greek,  the  Roman,  the 
Norse,  and  the  German. 

298.  In  Greece,  (i)  Mythical  Prophets.  To  some  of  the  oldest 
bards  was  attributed  the  gift  of  prophecy.  Indeed,  nearly  every 
expedition  of  mythology  was  accompanied  by  one  of  these  seers, 
priests,  or  "  medicine  men,"  as  we  might  call  them. 

MelavipHs  was  the  first  Greek  said  to  be  endowed  with  prophetic 
powers.  Before  his  house  there  stood  an  oak  tree  containing  a  ser- 
pent's nest.  The  old  serpents  were  killed  by  the  slaves,  but  Me- 
lampus  saved  the  young  ones.  One  day  when  he  was  asleep  under  the 
oak,  the  serpents  licked  his  ears  with  their  tongues,  enabling  him  to 
understand  the  language  of  birds  and  creeping  things.^  At  one  time 
his  enemies  seized  and  imprisoned  him.  But  Melampus,  in  the  silence 
of  the  night,  heard  from  the  woodworms  in  the  timbers  that  the  sup- 
ports of  the  house  were  nearly  eaten  through  and  the  roof  would 
soon  fall  in.  He  told  his  captors.  They  took  his  warning,  escaped 
destruction,  rewarded  the  prophet,  and  held  him  in  high  honor. 

J  Odyssey  8,  250.  2  cf.  the  experience  of  Sigurd. 

450 


THE  PRESERVATION  OF  MYTHS  45 1 

Other  famous  soothsayers  were  Amphiaraiis,  who  took  part  in 
the  War  of  the  Seven  against  Thebes  ;  Calchas,  who  accompanied 
the  Greeks  during  the  Trojan  War ;  Helenus  and  Cassandra,  of 
King  Priam's  family,  who  prophesied  for  the  Trojan  forces  ;  Tire- 
sias,  the  bhnd  prophet  of  Thebes ;  and  Mopsus,  who  attended  the 
Argonauts.  The  stories  of  these  expeditions  are  given  in  preceding 
chapters. 

{2)  MytJdcal  Musicians  and  Poets.  Since  the  poets  of  antiquit\' 
sang  their  stories  or  hymns  to  an  accompaniment  of  their  own  upon 
the  harp  or  lyre,  they  were  skilled  in  the  art  of  music  as  well  as  in 
that  of  verse. 

Orpheus,  whose  adventures  have  been  narrated,  passes  in  tradi- 
tion for  the  oldest  of  Greek  lyrists,  and  the  special  favorite,  even 
the  son,  of  the  god  Apollo,  patron  of  musicians.  This  Thracian 
bard  is  said  to  have  taught  mysterious  truths  concerning  the  origin 
of  things  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  But  the  fragments  of 
Orphic  hymns  which  are  attributed  to  him  are  probably  the  work 
of  philosophers  of  a  much  later  period  in  Greek  literature. 

Another  Thracian  bard,  Thamyris,  is  said  in  his  presumption  to 
have  challenged  the  Muses  to  a  trial  of  skill.  Conquered  in  the  con- 
test, he  was  deprived  of  his  sight.  To  Ahiscens,  the  son  of  Orpheus, 
was  attributed  a  hymn  on  the  Eleusinian  mysteries,  and  other  sacred 
poems  and  oracles.    Milton  couples  his  name  with  that  of  Orpheus : 

But,  O  sad  Virgin !  that  thy  power 
Might  raise  Musaeus  from  his  bower, 
Or  bid  the  soul  of  Orpheus  sing 
Such  notes  as,  warbled  to  the  string, 
Drew  iron  tears  down  Pluto's  cheek, 
And  made  Hell  grant  what  love  did  seek.^ 

Other  legendary  bards  or  musicians  were  Linus,  Marsyas,  and 
Amphion. 

(3)  The  Poets  of  Mythology.  Homer,  from  whose  poems  of  the 
Iliad  and  Odyssey  we  have  taken  the  chief  part  of  our  chapters  on 
the  Trojan  W^ar  and  the  return  of  the  Grecians,  is  almost  as  mythi- 
cal a  personage  as  the  heroes  he  celebrates.  The  traditionary  story 
is  that  he  was  a  wandering  minstrel,  blind  and  old,  w'ho  traveled 

1  II  Penseroso,  11.  103-108. 


45^ 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


from  place  to  place  singing  his  lays  to  the  music  of  his  harp,  in  the 
courts  of  princes  or  the  cottages  of  peasants,  —  a  dependent  upon 
the  voluntary  offerings  of  his  hearers.  Byron  calls  him  "  the  blind 
old  man  of  Scio's  rocky  isle  "  ;  and  a  well-known  epigram,  alluding 
to  the  uncertainty  of  the  fact  of  his  birthplace,  runs  : 

Seven  wealthy  towns  contend  for  Homer  dead, 
Through  which  the  living  Homer  begged  his  bread. 

These  seven  places  were  Smyrna,  Chios  (now  Scio),  Colophon, 
Ithaca,  Pylos,  Argos,  and  Athens. 

Modern  scholars  have  doubted  whether  the  Homeric  poems  are 
the  work  of  any  single  mind.  This  uncertainty  arises,  in  part,  from 
the  difficulty  of  believing  that  poems  of  such  length  could  have 
been  committed  to  writing  in  the  age  usually  assigned  to  these, 
when  materials  capable  of  transmitting  long  productions  were  not 
yet  in  use.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  asked  how  poems  of  such 
length  could  have  been  handed  down  from  age  to  age  by  means  of 
the  memory  alone.  This  question  is  answered  by  the  statement 
that  there  was  a  professional  body  of  men  whose  business  it  was  to 
commit  to  memory  and  rehearse  for  pay  the  national  and  patriotic 
legends. 

Pisistratus  of  Athens  ordered  a  commission  of  scholars  (about 
537  B.C.)  to  collect  and  revise  the  Homeric  poems  ;  and  it  is  prob- 
able that  at  that  time  certain  passages  of  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey,  as 
we  now  have  them,  were  interpolated.  Beside  the  Iliad  and  the 
Odyssey,  many  other  epics  passed  in  antiquity  under  Homer's 
name.  The  so-called  Homeric  Hymns  to  the  gods,  which  were  com- 
posed by  various  poets  after  the  death  of  Homer,  are  a  source 
of  valuable  information  concerning  the  attributes  of  the  divinities 
addressed. 

The  date  assigned  to  Homer,  on  the  authority  of  Herodotus,  is 
8  50  B.C.  The  preser\^ation  and  further  fashioning  of  myths  fell,  after 
Homer's  time,  into  the  hands  of  the  Rhapsodists,  who  chanted  epic 
songs,  and  of  the  Cyclic  poets,  who  elaborated  into  various  epic  cir- 
cles, or  completed  wholes,  neglected  traditions  of  the  Trojan  War. 
Among  these  cyclic  poems  were  the  Cyprian  Lays,  which  related 
the  beginnings  of  the  Trojan  War  and  the  first  nine  years  of  the 


THE  PRESERVATION  OF  MYTHS  453 

siege,  thus  leading  up  to  the  Iliad  ;  the  ^thiopis,  which  continued 
the  Iliad  and  told  of  the  death  of  Achilles;  the  Little  Iliad  and  the 
Iliupersis,  which  narrated  the  fall  of  Troy  and  magnified  the  exploits 
of  Ajax  and  Philoctetes ;  and  the  Nostoi,  or  Home-Comings,  which 
told  the  adventures  of  various  Greek  heroes  during  the  period  of 
ten  years  between  the  end  of  the  Iliad  and  the  beginning  of  the 
Odyssey.  Most  of  these  poems  were  once  attributed  to  Homer, 
They  are  all  lost,  but  the  names  of  some  of  their  authors  survive. 
There  was  also  a  cycle  which  told  of  the  two  wars  against  Thebes. 

Hesiod  is,  like  Homer,  one  of  the  most  important  sources  of  our 
knowledge  of  Greek  mythology.  He  is  thought  by  some  to  have 
been  a  contemporary  of  Homer,  but  concerning  the  relative  dates 
of  the  two  poets  there  is  no  certainty.  Hesiod  was  born  in  Ascra 
in  Boeotia  ;  he  spent  his  youth  as  a  shepherd  on  Mount  Helicon, 
his  manhood  in  the  neighborhood  of  Corinth,  and  wrote  two  great 
poems,  the  Works  and  Days,  and  the  Theogony,  or  Genealogy  of 
the  Gods.  From  the  former  we  obtain  a  connected  account  of  Greek 
traditions  concerning  the  primitive  commodities  of  life,  the  arts  of 
agriculture  and  navigation,  the  sacred  calendar,  and  the  various  pre- 
historic ages.  From  the  latter  poem  we  learn  the  Greek  mythology 
of  the  creation  of  the  world,  the  family  of  the  gods,  their  wars, 
and  their  attitude  toward  primeval  man.  While  Hesiod  may  have 
composed  his  works  at  a  somewhat  later  period  than  Homer,  it  is 
noteworthy  that  his  stories  of  the  gods  have  more  of  the  savage 
or  senseless  element  than  those  attributed  to  Homer.  The  artist, 
or  artists,  of  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey  seem  to  have  refined  the 
stories  into  poetic  gold  ;  Hesiod  has  gathered  them  in  the  ore, 
like  so  many  specimens  for  a  museum. 

A  company  of  Lyric  Poets,  of  whom  Stesichorus  (620  B.C.), 
Alcaeus  (611  b.c),  Sappho  (610  b.c),  Arion  (600  b.c),  Simonides 
of  Ceos  (556  B.C.),  Ibycus  (540  ]5.c.),  Anacreon  (530  b.c),  and 
Pindar  (522  b.c.)  are  the  most  prominent,  have  contributed  much 
CO  our  knowledge  of  mythology.  They  have  left  us  hymns  to  the 
gods,  references  to  mythical  heroes,  and  accounts  of  more  or  less 
pathetic  legendary  adventures. 

Of  the  works  of  Sappho  few  fragments  remain,  but  they  estab- 
lish her  claim  to  eminent  poetical  genius.    Her  story  is  frequently 


454  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

alluded  to.  Being  passionately  in  love  with  a  beautiful  youth 
named  Phaon,  and  failing  to  obtain  a  return  of  affection,  she  is 
said  to  have  thrown  herself  from  the  promontory  of  Leucadia 
into  the  sea,  under  a  superstition  that  those  who  should  take 
that  "  Lover's  Leap  "  would,  if  not  destroyed,  be  cured  of  their 
love. 

Of  Arion  the  greatest  work  was  a  dithyramb  or  choral  hymn  to 
the  god  of  wine.  It  is  said  that  his  music  and  song  were  of  such 
sweetness  as  to  charm  the  monsters  of  the  sea ;  and  that  when 
thrown  overboard  on  one  occasion  by  avaricious  seamen,  he  was 
borne  safely  to  land  by  an  admiring  dolphin.  Spenser  represents 
Arion,  mounted  on  his  dolphin,  accompanying  the  train  of  Nep- 
tune and  Amphitrite  : 

Then  was  there  heard  a  most  celestial  sound 
Of  dainty  music,  which  did  next  ensue 
Before  the  spouse :  that  was  Arion  crowned 
Who,  playing  on  his  harp,  unto  him  drew 
The  ears  and  hearts  of  all  that  goodly  crew ; 
That  even  yet  the  dolphin  which  him  bore 
Through  the  ^gean  seas  from  pirates'  view, 
Stood  still  by  him  astonished  at  his  lore, 
And  all  the  raging  seas  for  joy  forgot  to  roar.^ 

Sinwjiidcs  was  one  of  the  most  prolific  of  the  early  poets  of 
Greece,  but  only  a  few  fragments  of  his  compositions  have  de- 
scended to  us.  He  wrote  hymns,  triumphal  odes,  and  elegies, 
and  in  the  last  species  of  composition  he  particularly  excelled. 
His  genius  was  inclined  to  the  pathetic ;  none  could  touch  with 
truer  effect  the  chords  of  human  sympathy.  The  Lamentation 
of  Danae,  the  most  important  of  the  fragments  which  remain  of 
his  poetry,  is  based  upon  the  tradition  that  Danae  and  her  infant 
son  were  confined  by  order  of  her  father  Acrisius  in  a  chest  and 
set  adrift  on  the  sea.  The  myth  of  her  son,  Perseus,  has  already 
been  narrated. 

Myths  received  their  freest  and  perhaps  most  ideal  treatment 
at  the  hands  of  the  greatest  lyric  poet  of  Greece,  Pindar  (522  b.c). 
In  his  hymns  and  songs  of  praise  to  gods  and  in  his  odes  composed 

l  Faerie  Queene,  4,  1 1,  23. 


THE  PRESERVATION  OF  MYTHS  455 

for  the  victors  in  the  national  athletic  contests,  he  was  accustomed 
to  use  the  mythical  exploits  of  Greek  heroes  as  a  text  from  which 
to  draw  morals  appropriate  to  the  occasion.^ 

The  three  great  Tragic  Poets  of  Greece  have  handed  down  to 
us  a  wealth  of  mythological  material.  From  the  plays  of  Aischylus 
(525  B.C.)  we  gather,  among  other  noble  lessons,  the  fortunes  of 
the  family  of  Agamemnon,  the  narrative  of  the  expedition  against 
Thebes,  the  sufferings  of  Prometheus,  benefactor  of  men.  In 
the  tragedies  of  Sophocles  (495  B.C.)  we  have  a  further  account 
of  the  family  of  Agamemnon,  myths  of  CEdipus  of  Thebes  and 
his  children,  stories  connected  with  the  Trojan  War,  and  the  last 
adventure  and  the  death  of  Hercules.  Of  the  dramas  of  Euripides 
(480  B.C.)  there  remain  to  us  seventeen,  in  which  are  found 
stories  of  the  daughters  of  Agamemnon,  the  rare  and  beautiful 
narrative  of  Alcestis,  and  the  adventures  of  Medea.  All  of  these 
stories  have  been  recounted  in  their  proper  places. 

The  Comedies  of  Aristophanes,  also,  are  replete  with  matters  of 
mythological  import. 

Of  the  later  poets  of  mythology,  only  two  need  be  mentioned 
here,  -^  Apollonins  of  Rhodes  (194  b.c),  who  wrote  in  frigid  style 
the  story  of  Jason's  Voyage  for  the  Golden  Fleece  ;  and  Theoc- 
ntus  of  Sicily  (270  b.c),  whose  rural  idyls  are  at  once  charm- 
ingly natural  and  romantic.^ 

(4)  Historians  of  MytJiology.  The  earliest  narrators  in  prose 
of  the  myths,  legends  and  genealogies  of  Greece  lived  about 
600  B.C.  Herodotus,  the  "  father  of  history  "  (484  b.c),  embalms 
various  myths  in  his  account  of  the  conflicts  between  Asia  and 
Greece.  Apollodorus  (140  b.c)  gathers  the  legends  of  Greece 
later  incorporated  in  the  Library  of  Greek  Mythology.  That 
delightful  traveler,  Pausanias,  makes  special  mention,  in  his  Tour 
of  Greece,  of  the  sacred  customs  and  legends  that  had  maintained 
themselves  as  late  as  his  time  (160  a.d).  Lucian,  in  his  Dialogues 
of  the  Gods  and  Dialogues  of  the  Dead,  awakens  "  inextinguishable 
laughter  "  by  his  satire  on  ancient  faith  and  fable. 

1  See  E.  B.  Clapp,  Greek  Morality  and  Religion  as  Set  forth  by  Pindar  {Hlbbcri  Journal, 
8,  283). 

2  For  other  authorities  and  for  a  few  standard  translations  of  the  Greek  ClassicSj  see 
Commentary,  §  298. 


456  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

299.  Roman  Poets  of  Mythology.  Virgil,  called  also  by  his 
surname,  Maro,  from  whose  poem  of  the  ^neid  we  have  taken 
the  story  of  yEneas,  was  one  of  the  great  poets  who  made  the  age 
of  the  Roman  emperor,  Augustus,  celebrated.  Virgil  was  born  in 
Mantua  in  the  year  70  b.c.  His  great  poem  is  ranked  next  to 
those  of  Homer,  in  that  noble  class  of  poetical  composition,  the 
epic.  Virgil  is  inferior  to  Homer  in  originality  and  invention. 
The  y^neid,  written  in  an  age  of  culture  and  science,  lacks  that 
charming  atmosphere  of  belief  which  invests  the  naive,  ox  popular, 
epic.  The  myths  concerning  the  founding  of  Rome,  which  Virgil 
has  received  from  earlier  writers,  he  has  here  fused  into  a  literary 
epic.  But  what  the  ^-Encid  lacks  of  epic  simplicity,  it  makes  up 
in  patriotic  spirit,  in  lofty  moral  and  civic  ideals,  in  correctness 
of  taste,  and  in  stylistic  form. 

Ovid,  often  alluded  to  in  poetry-  by  his  other  name,  Naso,  was 
born  in  the  year  43  B.C.  He  was  educated  for  public  life  and  held 
some  offices  of  considerable  dignity;  but  poetry  was  his  delight, 
and  he  early  resolved  to  cultivate  it.  He  accordingly  sought  the 
society  of  contemporary  poets  and  was  acquainted  with  Horace  and 
saw  Virgil,  though  the  latter  died  when  Ovid  was  yet  too  young  and 
undistinguished  to  have  formed  his  acquaintance.  Ovid  spent  an 
easy  life  at  Rome  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  competent  income.  He 
was  intimate  with  the  family  of  Augustus,  the  emperor;  and  it  is 
supposed  that  some  serious  offense  given  to  a  member  of  that  family 
was  the  cause  of  an  event  which  reversed  the  poet's  happy  circum- 
stances and  clouded  the  latter  portion  of  his  life.  At  the  age  of  fifty 
he  was  banished  from  Rome  and  ordered  to  betake  himself  to  Tomi 
on  the  borders  of  the  Black  Sea.  His  only  consolation  in  exile  was 
to  address  his  wife  and  absent  friends.  His  letters  were  all  in  verse. 
They  are  called  the  "Tristia,"  or  Sorrows,  and  Letters  from  Pontus. 
The  two  great  works  of  Ovid  are  his  "  Metamorphoses  "  or  Trans- 
formations, and  his  "  Fasti,"  or  Poetic  Calendar.  They  are  both 
mythological  poems,  and  from  the  former  we  have  taken  many  of 
our  stories  of  Grecian  and  Roman  mytholog}'.  These  poems  haAC 
thus  been  characterized  : 

"The  rich  mytholog)^  of  Greece  furnished  Ovid,  as  it  may  still 
furnish  the  poet,  the  painter,  and  the  sculptor,  with  materials  for 


THE  PRESERVATION  OF  MYTHS  457 

his  art.  With  exquisite  taste,  simpUcity,  and  pathos  he  has  nar- 
rated the  fabulous  traditions  of  early  ages,  and  given  to  them  that 
appearance  of  reality  which  only  a  master  hand  could  impart. 
His  pictures  of  nature  are  striking  and  true  ;  he  selects  with  care 
that  which  is  appropriate  ;  he  rejects  the  superfluous,  and  when 
he  has  completed  his  work,  it  is  neither  defective  nor  redundant. 
The  '  Metamorphoses  '  are  read  with  pleasure  by  the  young  and 
old  of  every  civilized  land." 

In  an  incidental  manner,  Horace,  the  prince  of  Roman  lyric 
poets,  and  the  lyric  and  elegiac  writers,  Cat7ilhis,  Tibidhis,  and 
Pj'operthis,  have  liberally  increased  our  knowledge  of  Greek  and 
Roman  myth.^ 

Seneca,  the  teacher  of  Nero,  is  best  known  for  his  philosophical 
treatises  ;  but  he  wrote,  also,  tragedies,  the  materials  of  which  are 
well-known  Greek  legends.  Apulcitis,  born  in  Africa,  114  a.d., 
interests  us  as  the  compiler  of  a  clever  romance,  The  Golden 
Ass  ;2  the  most  pleasing  episode  of  which,  the  story  of  Cupid  and 
Psyche,  has  been  elsewhere  related.^ 

300.  Records  of  Norse  Mythology.^  A  system  of  mythology 
of  especial  interest,  —  as  belonging  to  the  race  from  which  we, 
through  our  English  ancestors,  derive  our  origin,  —  is  that  of  the 
Norsemen,  who  inhabited  the  countries  now  known  as  Sweden, 
Denmark,  Norway,  and  Iceland.  Their  mythological  lore  has 
been  transmitted  by  means  of  Runes,  Skaldic  poems,  the  Eddas, 
and  the  Sagas. 

The  Runes.  The  earliest  method  of  writing  prevalent  among 
the  Norsemen  was  by  runes.  The  word  means  hiddeji  lore,  or 
mystery.  The  earliest  runes  were  merely  fanciful  signs  supposed 
to  possess  mysterious  power.  As  a  synonym  for  writing,  the  term 
was  first  applied  to  the  Northern  alphabet,  itself  derived  from 
ancient  Greek  and  Roman  coins.  Of  the  old  Scandinavian  runes 
several  specimens  have  been  found  —  one  an  inscription  on  a 
golden  horn  of  the  third  or  fourth  century  a.d.,  which  was  dug 

1  With  regard  to  translations  of  these  and  other  Latin  poets,  see  Commentary,  §  299. 

2  Based  upon  Lucian's  Lucius  or  the  Ass,  and  other  Greek  stories. 

3  Translation  in  Walter  Pater's  Marius  the  Epicurean. 

4  For  literature,  see  Commentary. 


458  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

up  in  Schleswig  a  hundred  and  sixty  years  ago ;  another,  on  a 
stone  at  Tune  in  Norway.  From  such  an  alphabet  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  runes  were  derived.  Inscriptions  in  later  Scandinavian  runes 
have  been  discovered  in  Sweden,  Denmark,  and  the  Isle  of  Man. 
The  characters  are  of  the  stiff  and  angular  form  necessitated  by  the 
materials  on  which  they  were  inscribed, — tombstones,  spoons,  chairs, 
oars,  and  so  forth. ^  It  is  doubtful  whether  mythological  poems  were 
ever  written  in  this  way ;  dedications  to  pagan  deities,  ditties  of  the 
eleventh  century,  and  love-spells  have,  however,  been  found. 

The  Skaldic  Poems.  The  bards  and  poets  of  the  Norsemen 
were  the  Skalds.  They  were  the  depositaries  of  whatever  historic 
lore  there  was ;  and  it  was  their  office  to  mingle  something  of 
intellectual  gratification  with  the  rude  feasts  of  the  warriors,  by  re- 
hearsing, with  such  accompaniments  of  poetry  and  music  as  their 
skill  could  afford,  the  exploits  of  heroes  living  or  dead.  Such  songs 
were  called  Drapas.  The  origin  of  Skaldic  poetry  is  lost  in  mythic 
or  prehistoric  darkness,  but  the  Skalds  of  Iceland  continued  to  play 
a  most  important  part  in  the  literary  development  of  the  north  as 
late  as  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century.  Without  their  coopera- 
tion, the  greater  part  of  the  songs  and  sagas  of  genuine  antiquity 
could  hardly  have  reached  us.  The  Skaldic  diction,  which  was  pol- 
ished to  an  artistic  extreme,  with  its  pagan  metaphors  and  similes 
retained  its  supremacy  over  literary  form  even  after  the  influence  of 
Christianity  had  revolutionized  national  thought.^ 

TJie  Eddas.  The  chief  mythological  records  of  the  Norse  are 
the  Eddas  and  the  Sagas.  The  word  Edda  has  usually  been  con- 
nected with  the  Icelandic  for  great-grmidmother ;'^  it  has  also 
been  regarded  as  a  corruption  of  the  High  German  Erda,  Mother 
Earth,  from  whom,  according  to  the  lay  in  which  the  word  first 
occurs,  the  earliest  race  of  mankind  sprang,^  —  or  as  the  poitit 
or  head  of  Norse  poetr)^,^  or  as  a  tale  concerned  with  death^  or 
as  derived  from  Odde,  the  home  of  the  reputed  collector  of  the 

1  Cleasby  and  Vigfusson's  Icelandic-English  Dictionary. 

2  F.  W.  Horn's  Geschichte  d.  Literatur  d.  Skandinavischen  Nordens,  27-42. 

3  Cleasby  and  Vigfusson's  Dictionary ;  Liining's  Die  Edda,  1859. 

■*  The  Lay  of  Righ  in  Snorri's  Edda ;  Vigfusson  and  Powell's  Corpus  Poeticum  Boreale, 
2,514.  5  Jacob  Grimm. 

0  The  Celtic  aideadh  :  Professor  Rhys,  Academy,  January  31,  1880. 


THE  PRESERVATION  OF  MYTHS  459 

Elder  Edda.  But,  of  recent  years,  scholars  have  looked  with 
most  favor  upon  a  derivation  from  the  Icelandic  ohr,  which  means 
mind,  or  poetry.^  There  are  two  Icelandic  collections  called 
Eddas  :  Snorri's  and  Saemund's.  Until  the  year  1643  the  name 
was  applied  to  a  book,  principally  in  prose,  containing  Mythical 
Tales,  a  Treatise  on  the  Poetic  Art  and  Diction,  a  Poem  on  Meters, 
and  a  Rhymed  Glossary  of  Synonyms,  with  an  appendix  of  minor 
treatises  on  grammar  and  rhetoric  —  the  whole  intended  as  a  guide 
for  poets.  Although  a  note  in  the  Upsala  manuscript,  of  date 
about  1300  A.D.,  asserted  that  this  work  was  "put  together"  by 
Snorri  Sturlason,  who  lived  11 78-1 241,  the  world  was  not  in- 
formed of  the  fact  until  1609,  when  Arngrim  Johnsson  made  the 
announcement  in  his  Constitutional  History  of  Iceland.^  While 
the  main  treatises  on  the  poetic  art  are,  in  general,  Snorri's,  the 
treatises  on  grammar  and  rhetoric  have  been,  with  more  or  less 
certitude,  assigned  to  other  writers  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries.  It  is  probable,  too,  that  in  the  Mythical  Tales,  or  the 
Delusion  of  Gylfi,  Snorri  merely  enlarged  and  edited  with  poet- 
ical illustrations  the  work  of  earlier  hands.  The  poets  of  the 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  do  not  speak  of  Snorri,  but 
they  refer  continually  to  the  "rules  of  Edda,"  and  frequently  to 
the  obscurity  and  the  conventionality  of  Eddie  phraseolog}',  fig- 
ures, and  art.  Even  at  the  present  day  in  Iceland  it  is  common 
to  hear  the  term  ''  void  of  Eddie  art,"  or  "a  bungler  in  Eddie 
art."  A  rearrangement  of  Snorri's  Edda,  by  Magnus  Olafsson 
(i 574-1636),  is  much  better  known  than  the  original  work. 

In  1642,  Bishop  Bryniolf  Sveinsson  discovered  a  manuscript  of 
the  mythological  poems  of  Iceland.  Misled  by  theories  of  his 
own  and  by  a  fanciful  suggestion  of  the  famous  antiquary  Biorn 
of  Scardsa,  he  attributed  the  composition  of  these  poems  to  Sae- 
mund  the  Wise,  a  historian  who  lived  1056-1133.  Henceforth, 
consequently,  Snorri's  work  is  called  the  Younger,  or  Prose  Edda, 
in  contradistinction  to  Bryniolf's  find,  which  is  known  as  the 
Elder,  the  Poetical  Edda,  or  the  Edda  of  Saemund.  The  oldest 
manuscript  of  the  Poetical  Edda  is  of  the  thirteenth  centur)^    Its 

1  Ame  Magnusson,  see  Morley's  English  Writers,  2,  336,  and  Murray's  New  English 
Dictionary.  2  Corpus  Poeticum  Boreale,  i  ;  xxvii,  etc. 


46o  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

contents  were  probably  collected  not  later  than  1150.  The  com- 
position of  the  poems  cannot  well  be  placed  earlier  than  the  ninth  or 
tenth  centuries  after  Christ;  and  a  consideration  of  the  habits,  laws, 
geography,  and  vocabulary  illustrated  by  the  poems  leads  eminent 
scholars  to  assign  the  authorship  to  emigrants  of  the  south  Norwe- 
gian tribes  who,  sailing  westward,  "  won  Waterford  and  Limerick, 
and  kinged  it  in  York  and  East  England." ^  The  poems  are  Ice- 
landic, however,  in  their  general  character  and  history.  They  are 
principally  of  heroic  and  mythical  import:  such  as  the  stories  of 
Balder's  Fate,  of  Skirnir's  Journey,  of  Thor's  Hammer,  of  Helgi 
the  Hunding's  Bane,  and  the  twenty  lays  that  in  fragmentary  fashion 
tell  the  eventful  history  of  the  Volsungs  and  the  Nibelungs.^ 

The  Sagas.  The  Eddas  contain  many  myths  and  mythical 
features  that  contradict  the  national  character  of  both  Germans 
and  Norsemen,  but  the  sagas  have  their  roots  in  Norse  civiliza- 
tion and  are  national  property.^  Of  these  mythic-heroic  prose 
compositions  the  most  important  to  us  is  the  Volsunga  Saga,  which 
was  put  together  probably  in  the  twelfth  century  and  is  based  in 
part  upon  the  poems  of  the  Elder  Edda,  in  part  upon  floating 
traditions,  and  in  part  upon  popular  songs  that  now  are  lost,^ 

301.  Records  of  German  Mythology. "-^  The  story  of  the  Vol- 
sungs and  the  Nibelungs  springs  from  mythological  sources  com- 
mon to  the  whole  Teutonic  race.  Two  distinct  versions  of  the 
saga  survive,  —  the  Low  or  North  German,  which  we  have  already 
noticed  in  the  lays  of  the  Elder  Edda  and  in  the  Norse  Volsunga 
Saga,  and  the  High  or  South  German,  which  has  been  preserved 
in  German  folk  songs  and  in  the  Nibelungenlied,  or  Lay  of  the 
Nibelungs,  that  has  grown  out  of  them.  The  Norse  form  of  the 
story  exhibits  a  later  survival  of  the  credulous,  or  myth-making, 
mental  condition.  The  Lay  of  the  Nibelungs  absorbed,  at  an 
earlier  date,  historical  elements,  and  began  sooner  to  restrict  the 
personality  of  its  heroes  within  the  compass  of  human  limitations.^ 

1  Corpus  Poeticum  Boreale,  i  ;  Ixxi ;  Ixiii-lxiv. 

2  For  literature,  see  Commentan,'. 

3  Paul's  Grundriss  d.  Germanischen  Philologie  :  Bd.  i,  Lfg.  5,  Mythologie. 

■*  Morris  and  Magnusson's  The  Story  of  the  Volsungs  and  Nibelungs.   Horn's  Gcschichte 
d.  Literatur  d.  Skandinavischen  Nordens,  27-42,  58,  etc. 
6  Werner  Ilahn,  Das  Nibelungenlied. 


THE  PRESERVATION  OF  MYTHS  461 

Although  there  are  many  manuscripts,  or  fragments  of  manu- 
scripts, of  the  Nibelungenhed  that  attest  its  popularity  between 
the  thirteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  it  was  not  until  the  Swiss 
critic,  J,  J.  Bodmer,  published,  in  1757,  portions  of  two  ancient 
poems,  "'  The  Revenge  of  Kriemhild  "  and  '"  The  Lament  over  the 
Heroes  of  Etzel,"  that  the  attention  of  modern  scholars  was  called 
to  this  famous  German  epic.  Since  that  time  many  theories  of  the 
composition  of  the  Nibelungenhed  have  been  advanced.  It  has 
been  held  by  some  that  the  German  epic  is  an  adaptation  of  the 
Norse  version  ;  ^  by  others,  that  the  Scandinavians,  not  the  Ger- 
mans, borrowed  the  story  ;  and  by  others  still,  that  the  epics,  while 
proceeding  from  a  common  cradle,  are  of  independent  growth. 
The  last  theory  is  the  most  tenable.^  Concerning  the  history  of 
the  Nibelungenhed,  it  has  been  maintained  that  since,  during  the 
twelfth  century,  when  no  poet  would  adopt  any  other  poet's 
stanzaic  form,  the  Austrian  Von  Kiirenberg  used  the  stanzaic 
form  of  the  Nibelungenhed,*  the  epic  must  be  his.'^  It  has  also 
been  urged  that  the  poem,  having  been  written  down  about  1 1 40, 
was  altered  in  metrical  form  by  younger  poets,  until,  in  1200  or 
thereabouts,  it  assumed  the  form  preserved  in  the  latest  of  the 
three  great  manuscripts.^  But  the  theory  advanced  by  Lachmann 
is  still  of  great  value  :  that  the  poem  consists  of  a  number  of 
ancient  ballads  of  various  age  and  uneven  worth  ;  and  that,  about 
1 210,  a  collector,  mending  some  of  the  ballads  to  suit  himself, 
strung  them  together  on  a  thread  of  his  own  invention. 

In  fine,  the  materials  of  the  poem  would  persuade  us  not  only 
of  its  origin  in  very  ancient  popular  lays,  but  of  their  fusion  and 
improvement  by  the  imaginative  effort  of  at  least  one,  and  prob- 
ably of  several  poets,  who  lived  and  wrote  between  1 1 20  and 
1200A.D.  The  metrical  structure,  also,  would  indicate  derivation 
from  the  German  folk  song  and  modification  due  to  multifa- 
rious handling  on  the  part  of  popular  minstrels  and  poets  of 
written  verse.^ 

1  The  Grimm  Brothers  ;  v.  d.  Hagen  ;  Vilmar. 

2  Werner  Hahn  ;  Jas.  Sime,  Encyc.  Brit.  Nibelungailied. 

3  Pfeiffer. 

*  Bartsch,  see  Encyc.  Brit. 
6  Werner  Hahn,  18,  58-60. 


462  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

302.  Records  of  Oriental  Mythology:  Egyptian. ^  Although  the 
myths  of  Egypt,  India,  and  Persia  are  of  intense  interest  and  im- 
portance, they  have  not  materially  affected  English  literature.  The 
following  is,  however,  a  brief  outline  of  the  means  by  which  some 
of  them  have  been  preserved. 

The  Egyptian  records  are  (i)  The  Hieroglyphs,  or  sacred  in- 
scriptions in  Tombs  of  the  Kings,  and  other  solemn  places, — 
conveying  ideas  by  symbols,  by  phonetic  signs,  or  by  both  ;  (2) 
TJie  Sacr-ed  Papyri,  containing  hymns  to  the  gods ;  (3)  The 
Books  of  the  Dead  and  of  the  Lower  Hemisphere,  —  devoted  to 
necromantic  incantations,  prayers  for  the  souls  of  the  departed, 
and  other  rituals. 

303.  Indian  Records,  (i)  The  Vedas,  or  Holy  Scriptures  of  the 
Hindus,  which  fall  into  four  divisions.  The  most  ancient,  the 
Rig- Veda,  consists  of  hymns  of  an  elevated  and  spiritual  character 
composed  by  families  of  Rishis,  or  psalmists,  as  far  back,  perhaps, 
as  3000  B.C.,  not  later  than  1400  b.c.  They  give  us  the  religious 
conceptions  of  the  Aryans  when  they  crossed  the  Himalayas  and 
began  to  push  toward  Southern  Hindustan.  The  Sama-Veda  is 
a  book  of  solemn  chants  and  tunes.  The  Yajur-Veda  comprises 
prayers  for  sacrificial  occasions,  and  interpretations  of  the  same. 
The  Atharva-Veda  shows,  as  might  be  expected  of  the  youngest 
of  the  series,  the  influence  upon  the  purer  Aryan  creed  of  super- 
stitions borrowed,  perhaps,  from  the  aboriginal  tribes  of  India. 
It  contains  spells  for  exorcising  demons  and  placating  them. 

(2)  The  Indian  Epics  of  classical  standing.  They  are  the 
Mahabharata  and  the  Ramayana.  Scholars  differ  as  to  the  chron- 
ological precedence.  The  Great  Feud  of  the  Bharatas  has  the 
air  of  superior  antiquity  because  of  the  numerous  hands  and 
generations  that  have  contributed  to  its  composition.  The  Ad- 
ventures of  Rama,  on  the  other  hand,  recalls  a  more  primitive 
stage  of  credulity  and  of  savage  invention.  The  Mahabharata  is 
a  storehouse  of  mythical  tradition.  It  contains  several  well- 
rounded  epic  poems,  the  most  beautiful  of  which  is  the  Episode 
of  Nala,  —  a  prince  who,  succumbing  to  a  weakness  common  to 

1  For  translations  of  Oriental  Myths,  see  Commentary.  For  mythical  personages,  see 
Index  and  Dictionary. 


THE  PRESERVATION  OF  MYTHS  463 

his  contemporaries,  has  gambled  away  his  kingdom.  The  Great 
Feud  of  the  Bharatas  is,  indeed,  assigned  to  an  author  —  but  his 
name,  Vyasa,  means  simply  the  Arranger.  The  Ramayana  pur- 
ports to  have  been  written  by  the  poet  Valmiki.  It  tells  how  Sita, 
the  wife  of  Prince  Rama,  is  carried  off  to  Ceylon  by  Ravana,  king 
of  the  demons,  and  how  Rama,  by  the  aid  of  an  army  of  monkeys, 
bridges  the  straits  between  India  and  Ceylon  and,  slaying  the 
demon,  recovers  his  lovely  and  innocent  wife.  The  resemblance 
between  the  plot  and  that  of  the  Iliad  has  inclined  some  scholars 
to  derive  the  Indian  from  the  Greek  epic.  But,  until  the  rela- 
tive antiquity  of  the  poems  is  established,  the  Iliad  might  as  well 
be  derived  from  the  Ramayana.  The  theory  is  unsubstantiated. 
These  epics  of  India  lack  the  artistic  spirit  and  grace  of  the  Iliad 
and  the  Odyssey,  but  they  display  a  keener  sympathy  with  nature 
and  a  more  romantic  appreciation  of  the  loves  and  sorrows  of 
mankind. 

304.  Persian  Records.  TJie  Avesta,  or  Sacred  Book  of  the 
ancient  Persians,  composed  in  the  Zend  language  and  later  trans- 
lated into  medieval  Persian,  —  or  Pahlavi,  —  contains  the  Gathas, 
or  hymns  of  Zoroaster  and  his  contemporaries,  and  scriptures  of 
as  recent  a  date  as  the  fifth  century  B.C.  Zoroaster,  a  holy  man 
of  God,  was  the  founder  or  the  reformer  of  the  Persian  religion. 
He  lived  as  early  as  the  fourteenth  or  fifteenth  century  B.C.,  and 
his  system  became  the  dominant  religion  of  Western  Asia  from 
the  time  of  Cyrus  (550  b.c.)  to  the  conquest  of  Persia  by  Alexan- 
der the  Great.  The  teachings  of  Zoroaster  are  characterized  by 
beautiful  simplicity,  and  by  an  unwavering  faith  in  the  ultimate 
victory  of  righteousness  COrmuzd)  over  evil  (Ahriman). 


COMMENTARY 


[It  is  hoped  that  this  Commentary  may  be  useful  to  general  readers,  to  students  of  art,  and  to 

teachers  in  the  secondary  schools,  as  well  as  to  pupils.   The  cross  references  are  always  to  sections ; 

and  the  section  numbers  correspond  with  those  of  the  text  in  the  body  of  the  book.   The  letter  C. 

prefixed  to  a  number  indicates  Commentary.] 

3.  Chaos  :  a  gap.  Compare  the  "  Beginning  Gap  "  of  Norse  mythology.  Eros : 
a  yearning.   Erebus :  black,  from  root  meaning  to  cover. 

4.  Uranus  (Greek  Oiiratios)  corresponds  with  the  name  of  the  Indian  divinity 
Varunas,  root  7w;-, '  to  cover.'  Uranus  is  the  starry  vault  that  covers  the  earth; 
Varunas  became  the  rain-giving  sky.  Titan  :  the  honorable,  powerful ;  the  king  ; 
later,  the  signification  was  limited  to  the  sun.  Oceanus  probably  means  flood. 
Tethys  :  the  nourisher,  nurse.  Hyperion  :  the  wanderer  on  high ;  2  the  sun.  Thea  : 
the  beautiful,  shining;  the  moon.  She  is  called  by  Homer  Euryphaessa,  the  far- 
shining,  lapetus :  the  sender,  hurler,  wounder.  Themis :  that  which  is  estab- 
lished, law.  Mnemosyne:  memor)\  OtherTitans  were  Coeus and  Phcebe,  figurative 
of  the  radiant  lights  of  heaven ;  Creiis  and  Eurybie,  mighty  powers,  probably  of 
the  sea ;  Ophion,  the  great  serpent,  and  Eurynome,  the  far-ruling,  who,  accord- 
ing to  ApoUonius  of  Rhodes,  held  sway  over  the  Titans  until  Cronus  cast  them 
into  the  Ocean,  or  into  Tartarus. 

Cronus  (Greek  Kronos)  is,  as  his  name  shows,  the  god  of  ripening,  har\'est, 
maturity.  Rhea  comes  from  Asia  Minor,  and  was  there  worshiped  as  the  Mother 
Earth,  dwelling  creative  among  the  mountains.  Cronus  [Kronos)  has  been  natu- 
rally, but  wrongly,  identified  with  Chronos,  the  personification  of  Time,  which,  as 
it  brings  all  things  to  an  end,  devours  its  own  offspring;  and  also  with  the  Latin 
Saturn,  who,  as  a  god  of  agriculture  and  harvest,  was  represented  with  pruning- 
knife  in  hand,  and  regarded  as  the  lord  of  an  ancient  golden  age. 

The  three  Cyclopes  were  Brontes,  Steropes,  and  Arges.  Cyclops  means  the 
round-eyed.  The  Hecatonchires  were  Briareus,  the  strong,  called  also  .Egason  ; 
Cottus,  the  striker;  Gyes,  or  Gyges,  the  vaulter,  or  crippler.  Gyges  is  called  by 
Horace  (Carm.  2,  17,  14)  Centimanus,  —  the  hundred-handed. 

Illustrative.  Milton,  in  Paradise  Lost,  10,  581,  refers  to  the  tradition  of  Ophion 
and  Eurynome,  who  "  had  first  the  rule  of  high  Olympus,  thence  by  Saturn  driven." 
Hyperion :    see   Shakespeare's    Hamlet,   "  Hyperion's   curls,   the    front  of  Jove 

1  For  assistance  in  collecting  references  to  English  poetry  the  author  is  indebted  to 
Miss  M.  B.  Clayes,  a  graduate  of  the  University  of  California. 

2  Popular  etymology.   The  suffix  ton  is  patronymic, 

465 


466  •     THE   CLASSIC    MYTHS 

himself."  Also  Henry  V,  IV,  i;  Troilus  and  Cressida,  II,  iii ;  Titus  Andronicus, 
V,  iii ;  Gray,  Progress  of  Poesy,  "  Hyperion's  march  they  spy,  and  glittering 
shafts  of  war"  ;  Spenser,  Prothalamion,  "  Hot  Titans  beames."  On  Oceanus,  Ben 
Jonson,  Neptune's  Triumph.  On  Saturn,  see  Shakespeare,  Much  Ado  About 
Nothing,  I,  iii;  2  Henry  IV,  II,  iv ;  Cymbeline,  II,  v;  Titus  Andronicus,  II,  iii; 
IV,  iii;  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  i.  512,  519,  583,  and  II  Penseroso,  24.  See  Robert 
Buchanan,  Cloudland,  "  One  like  a  Titan  cold,"  etc. ;  Keats,  Hyperipn ;  B.  W. 
Procter,  The  Fall  of  Saturn. 

In  Art.  Helios  (Hyperion)  rising  from  the  sea  :  sculpture  of  eastern  pediment 
of  the  frieze  of  the  Parthenon  (British  Museum).  Mnemosyne :  D.  G.  Rossetti 
(crayons  and  oil). 

5.  Plomer  makes  Zeus  (Jupiter)  the  oldest  of  the  sons  of  Cronus  ;  Ilesiod  makes 
him  the  youngest,  in  accordance  with  a  widespread  savage  custom  which  makes  the 
youngest  child  heir  in  chief. —  Lang,  Myth,  Ritual,  etc.,  i,  297.  According  to 
other  legends  Zeus  was  born  in  Arcadia,  or  even  in  Epirus  at  Dodona,  where  was 
his  sacred  grove.  He  was  in  either  case  reared  by  the  nymphs  of  the  locality. 
According  to  Hesiod,  Theog.  730,  he  was  born  in  a  cave  of  Mount  Dicte,  in  Crete. 

6.  Atlas,  according  to  other  accounts,  was  not  doomed  to  support  the  heavens 
until  after  his  encounter  with  Perseus. 

8.  See  Milton's  Hymn  on  the  Nativity,  "  Not  Typhon  huge  ending  in  snaky 
twine."  The  monster  is  also  called  Typhoeus  (Hesiod,  Theog.  1137).  The  name 
means  to  smoke,  to  bum.  The  monster  personifies  fiery  vapors  proceeding  from 
subterranean  places.  Other  famous  Giants  were  Mimas,  Polybotes,  Ephialtes. 
Rhoetus,  Clytius.  See  Preller,  i,  60.  Briareus  (really  a  Centimanus)  is  frequently 
ranked  among  the  giants. 

Illustrative.  Shakespeare,  Troilus  and  Cressida,  I,  ii;  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  i, 
199,  and  Hymn  on  the  Nativity,  226;  M.  Arnold,  Empedocles,  Act  2;  Pope, 
Dunciad,  4,  66.  For  giants,  in  general,  see  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  3,  464;  11. 
642,  688;  Samson  Agonistes,  148. 

10-15.  Prometheus:  forethought.i  Epimetheus:  afterthought.  According  to 
^Eschylus  (Prometheus  Bound)  the  doom  of  Zeus  (Jupiter)  was  only  contingent.  If 
he  should  refuse  to  set  Prometheus  free  and  should,  therefore,  ignorant  of  the  secret, 
wed  Thetis,  of  whom  it  was  known  to  Prometheus  that  her  son  should  be  greater 
than  his  father,  then  Zeus  would  be  dethroned.  If,  however,  Zeus  himself  delivered 
Prometheus,  that  Titan  would  reveal  his  secret  and  Zeus  would  escape  both  the  mar- 
riage and  its  fateful  result.  The  Prometheus  Unbound  of  .^schylus  is  lost;  but  its 
name  indicates  that  in  the  sequel  the  Titan  is  freed  from  his  chains.  And  from  hints 
in  the  Prometheus  Bound  we  gather  that  this  liberation  was  to  come  about  in  the  way 
mentioned  above,  Prometheus  warning  Zeus  to  marry  Thetis  to  Peleus  (whose  son, 
Achilles,  proved  greater  than  his  father,  —  see  191) ;  or  by  the  intervention  of  Her- 
cules who  was  to  be  descended  in  the  thirteenth  generation  from  Zeus  and  lo  (see 
161  and  C.  149) ;  or  by  the  voluntary  sacrifice  of  the  Centaur  Chiron,  who,  when  Zeus 
should  hurl  Prometheus  and  his  rock  into  Hades,  was  destined  to  substitute  himself 
1  Popular  etymology.    The  root  of  the  name  indicates  Fire-god. 


COMMENTARY  467 

for  the  Titan,  and  so  by  vicarious  atonement  to  restore  him  to  the  life  of  the  upper 
world.  In  Shelley's  great  drama  of  Prometheus  Unbound,  the  Zeus  of  tyranny 
and  ignorance  and  superstition  is  overthrown  by  Reason,  the  gift  of  Prometheus 
to  mankind.    Sicyon  (or  Mecone)  :  a  city  of  the  Peloponnesus,  near  Corinth. 

Illustrative.  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  "  More  lovely  than  Pandora  whom  the  gods 
endowed  with  all  their  gifts."    Shakespeare,  Titus  Andronicus,  II,  i,  16. 

Poems.  D.  G.  Rossetti,  Pandora ;  Longfellow,  Masque  of  Pandora,  Prometheus, 
and  Epimetheus ;  Thos.  Parnell,  Hesiod,  or  the  Rise  of  Woman.  Prometheus,  by 
Byron,  Lowell,  H.  Coleridge,  Robert  Bridges ;  Prometheus  Bound,  by  Mrs. 
Browning;  translations  of  ^schylus,  Prometheus  Bound,  Augusta  Webster,  V^. 
H.  Plumptre ;  Shelley,  Prometheus  Unbound ;  R.  H.  Home,  Prometheus,  the 
Fire-bringer ;  E.  Myers,  The  Judgment  of  Prometheus;  George  Cabot  Lodge, 
Ilerakles,  a  drama.  See  Byron's  Ode  to  Napoleon  Buonaparte.  The  Golden  Age  : 
Chaucer,  The  P'ormer  Age  {Aitas  Prima)  ;  Milton,  Hymn  on  the  Nativity. 

In  Art.  Ancient:  Prometheus  Unbound,  vase  picture  (Monuments  Inedits, 
Rome  and  Paris).  Modern:  Thorwaldsen's  sculpture,  Minerva  and  Prometheus. 
Pandora:  Sichel  (oil),  Rossetti  (crayons  and  oil),  F.  S.  Church  (water  colors). 

16.  Dante  [Durante]  degli  A}ighieri  was  born  in  Florence,  1265.  Banished  by 
his  political  opponents,  1302,  he  remained  in  exile  until  his  death,  which  took 
place  in  Ravenna,  1321.  His  Vita  Nuova  (New  Life),  recounting  his  ideal  love 
for  Beatrice  Portinari,  was  written  between  1290  and  1300;  his  great  poem,  the 
Divina  Commedia  (the  Divine  Comedy)  consisting  of  three  parts,  —  Inferno, 
Purgatorio,  Paradiso,  —  during  the  years  of  his  exile.  Of  the  Divine  Comedy, 
says  Lowell,  "  It  is  the  real  history  of  a  brother  man,  of  a  tempted,  purified,  and 
at  last  triumphant  human  soul."  John  Milton  (b.  1608)  was  carried  by  the  stress 
of  the  civil  war,  1641-1649,  away  from  poetry,  music,  and  the  art  which  he  had 
sedulously  cultivated,  into  the  stormy  sea  of  politics  and  war.  Perhaps  the  severity 
of  his  later  sonnets  and  the  sublimity  of  his  Paradise  Lost,  Paradise  Regained, 
and  Samson  Agonistes  are  the  fruit  of  the  stern  years  of  controversy  through 
which  he  lived,  not  as  a  poet,  but  as  a  statesman  and  a  pamphleteer.  Cervantes 
(1547-1616),  the  author  of  the  greatest  of  Spanish  romances,  Don  Quixote.  His 
life  was  full  of  adventure,  privation,  suffering,  with  but  brief  seasons  of  happiness 
and  renown.  He  distinguished  himself  at  the  battle  of  Lcpanto,  1571  ;  but  in  1575, 
being  captured  by  Algerine  cruisers,  he  remained  five  years  in  harsh  captivity. 
After  his  return  to  Spain  he  was  neglected  by  those  in  power.  For  full  twenty 
years  he  struggled  for  his  daily  bread.  Don  Quixote  was  published  in  and  after 
1605.  Corybantes :  the  priests  of  Cybele,  whose  festivals  were  violent,  and  whose 
worship  consisted  of  dances  and  noise  suggestive  of  battle. 

18.  Astraea  was  placed  among  the  stars  as  the  constellation  Virgo,  the  virgin. 
Her  mother  was  Themis  (Justice).  Astraea  holds  aloft  a  pair  of  scales,  in  which 
she  weighs  the  conflicting  claims  of  parties.  The  old  poets  prophesied  a  return 
of  these  goddesses  and  of  the  Golden  Age.    See  also  Pope's  Messiah,  — 

All  crimes  shall  cease,  and  ancient  fraud  shall  foil. 
Returning  Justice  lift  aloft  her  scale  ; 


468  THE   CLASSIC    MYTHS 

and  Milton's  Hymn  on  the  Nativity,  14,  15.  In  Paradise  Lost,  4,  998  et  seq.,  is  a 
different  conception  of  the  golden  scales, "  betwixt  Astraea  and  the  Scorpion  sign." 
Emerson  moralizes  the  myth  in  his  Astraea. 

19-20.  Illustrative.  B.  W.  Procter,  The  Flood  of  Thessaly.  See  Ovid's  famous 
narrative  of  the  Four  Ages  and  the  Flood,  Metamorphoses,  i,  89-415.  Deucalion : 
Bayard  Taylor,  Prince  Deukalion ;  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  11,  12. 

Interpretative.  This  myth  combines  two  stories  of  the  origin  of  the  Hellenes, 
or  indigenous  Greeks,  —  one,  in  accordance  with  which  the  Hellenes,  as  earth- 
born,  claimed  descent  from  Pyrrha  (the  red  earth) ;  the  other  and  older,  by  which 
Deucalion  was  represented  as  the  only  survivor  of  the  flood,  but  still  the  founder 
of  the  race  (Greek  laos),  which  he  created  by  casting  stones  (Greek  Ides)  be- 
hind him.  The  myth,  therefore,  proceeds  from  an  unintended  pun.  Although, 
finally,  Pyrrha  was  by  myth-makers  made  the  wife  of  Deucalion,  the  older  myth 
of  the  origin  of  the  race  from  stones  was  preserved.  See  Max  Miiller,  Sci.  Relig., 
London,  1873,  P-  64. 

21.  For  genealogy  of  the  race  of  Inachus,  Phoroneus,  Pelasgus,  and  lo,  see 
Table  D.  Pelasgus  is  frequently  regarded  as  the  grandson,  not  the  son,  of 
Phoroneus.  For  the  descendants  of  Deucalion  and  Hellen,  see  Table  I  of  this 
commentary. 

22.  In  the  following  genealogical  table  (A),  the  names  of  the  great  gods  of 
Olympus  are  printed  in  heavy-face  type.  Latin  forms  of  names  or  Latin  substi- 
tutes are  used. 

Illustrative.  On  the  Gods  of  Greece,  see  E.  A.  Bowring's  translation  of  Schiller's 
Die  Gotter  Griechenlands,  and  Bayard  Taylor's  Masque  of  the  Gods.  On  Olympus, 
see  Lewis  Morris,  The  Epic  of  Hades.  Allusions  abound  ;  e.g.  Shakespeare, 
Troilus  and  Cressida,  III,  iii ;  Julius  Caesar,  III,  i ;  IV,  iii ;  Hamlet,  V,  i ;  Milton, 
Paradise  Lost,  i,  516;  7,  7  ;  10,  583  ;  Pope,  Rape  of  the  Lock,  5,  48,  and  Windsor 
Forest,  33,  234;  E.  C.  Stedman,  News  from  Olympia.  See  also  E.  W.  Gosse, 
Greece  and  England  (On  Viol  and  Flute). 

23.  The  Olympian  Gods.  There  were,  according  to  Mr.  Gladstone  (A'o.  Am. 
Rev.  April,  1892),  about  twenty  Olympian  deities  i^  (i)  The  five  really  great 
gods,  Zeus,  Hera,  Poseidon-  Apollo,  and  Athene ;  (2)  Hephaestus,  Ares,  Hermes, 
Iris,  Leto,  Artemis,  Themis,  Aphrodite,  Dione,  Paeeon  (or  Paeon),  and  Hebe,  — 
also  usually  present  among  the  assembled  immortals ;  (3)  Demeter,  Persephone, 
Dionysus,  and  Thetis,  whose  claims  are  more  or  less  obscured.  According  to  the 
same  authority,  the  Distinctive  Qualities  of  the  Homeric  Gods  were  as  follows : 
(i)  they  were  immortal:  (2)  they  were  incorporated  in  human  form;  (3)  they 
enjoyed  power  far  exceeding  that  possessed  by  mortals ;  (4)  they  were,  however 
(with  the  possible  exception  of  Athene,  who  is  never  ignorant,  never  deceived, 
never  baffled),  all  liable  to  certain  limitations  of  energy  and  knowledge  ;  (5)  they 
were  subject  also  to  corporeal  wants  and  to  human  affections.  The  Olympian 
Religion,  as  a  whole,  was  more  careful  of  nations,  states,  public  affairs,  than  of  indi- 
viduals and  individual  character;  and  in  this  respect,  according  to  Mr.  Gladstone. 

1  For  Latin  names,  see  Index  or  Chapters  II-V. 


COMMENTARV 


469 


it  differs  from  Christianity.  He  holds,  however, 
that  despite  the  occasional  immoralities  of  the 
gods,  their  general  government  not  only  "  makes 
for  righteousness,"  but  is  addressed  to  the  end  of 
rendering  it  triumphant.  Says  Zeus,  for  instance, 
in  the  Olympian  assembly,  "  Men  complain  of  us 
the  gods,  and  say  that  we  are  the  source  from 
whence  ills  proceed ;  but  they  likewise  themselves 
suffer  woes  outside  the  course  of  destiny,  through 
their  own  perverse  offending."  But,  beside  this 
general  effort  for  the  triumph  of  right,  there  is  little 
to  be  said  in  abatement  of  the  general  proposition 
that,  whatever  be  their  collective  conduct,  the  com- 
mon speech  of  the  gods  is  below  the  human  level 
in  point  of  morality.^ 

24-25.  Zeus.  In  Sanskrit  Dyaus,  in  Latin 
Jo7<is,  in  German  Thi.  The  same  name  for  the 
Almighty  (the  Light  or  Sky)  used  probably  thou- 
sands of  years  before  Homer,  or  the  Sanskrit  Bible 
(the  Vedas).  It  is  not  merely  the  blue  sky,  nor  the 
sky  personified,  —  not  merely  worship  of  a  natural 
phenomenon,  but  of  the  Father  who  is  in  Heaven. 
So  in  the  Vedas  we  find  Dyaus pitar,  in  the  Greek  Zeii 
pater,  in  Latin  Jupiter  all  meaning  father  of  light. 
—  M.\x  MiJLLER,  Sci.  Relig.  171,  172.  Oracle:  the 
word  signifies  also  the  answers  given  at  the  shrine. 

Ulustratwe.  Allusions  to  Jove  on  every  other 
page  of  Milton,  Dryden,  Pope,  Prior,  Gray,  and 
any  poet  of  the  Elizabethan  and  Augustan  periods. 
On  the  Love  Affairs  of  Jupiter  and  the  other  gods, 
see  Milton,  Paradise  Regained,  2,  182.  Dodona : 
Tennyson's  Talking  Oak  : 

That  Thessalian  growth, 
On  which  the  swarthy  ringdove  sat, 
And  mystic  sentence  spoke. . . . 

Poem  :  Lewis  Morris,  Zeus,  in  The  Epic  of  Hades. 
In  Art.  Beside  the  representations  of  Jupiter 
noted  in  the  text  may  be  mentioned  that  on  the 
eastern  frieze  of  the  Parthenon  ;  the  Jupiter  Otricoli 
in  the  Vatican  ;  also  the  Jupiter  and  Juno  (painting) 
by  Annibale  Carracci ;  the  Jupiter  (sculpture)  by 
Benvenuto  Cellini. 

1  The  Olympian  Religion  {.Vo.  Am.  Rev.  May,  1892), 
See  his  Juventus  Mundi. 


-8 


^t- 


_S 


i-S 


-^     g 


^.^o  THK  CLASSIC   MYTHS 

26.  Juno  was  called  by  the  Romans  Juno  Lucina,  the  special  goddess  of  child- 
birth. In  her  honor  wives  held  the  festival  of  the  Matronalia  on  the  first  of  March 
of  each  year.  The  Latin  Juno  is  for  Digu-n-on,  from  the  stem  Diove,  and  is  the 
feminine  parallel  of  Jovis,  just  as  the  Greek  Dione  (one  of  the  loves  of  Zeus)  is 
the  feminine  of  Zeus.  These  names  (and  Diana,  too)  come  from  the  root  dw, '  to 
shine,'  '  to  illumine.'  There  are  many  points  of  resemblance  between  the  Italian 
luno  and  the  Greek  Dione  (identified  with  Hera,  as  Hera-Dione).  Both  are  god- 
desses of  the  moon  (?),  of  women,  of  marriage;  to  both  the  cow  (with  moon- 
crescent  horns)  is  sacred.  See  Roscher,  21,  576-579.  But  Overbeck  insists 
that  the  loves  of  Zeus  are  deities  of  the  earth  :  '"  The  rains  of  heaven  (Zeus)  do 
not  fall  upon  the  moon." 

Illustrative.  \\.  S.  Landor,  Hymn  of  Terpander  to  Juno  ;  Lewis  Morris,  Here, 
in  The  Epic  of  Hades. 

In  Art.  Of  the  statues  of  Juno  the  most  celebrated  was  that  made  by  Polyclitus 
for  her  temple  between  Argos  and  Mycenas.  It  was  of  gold  and  ivory.  See  Pans. 
2,  17,  4.  The  goddess  was  seated  on  a  throne' of  magnificent  proportions;  she 
wore  a  crown  upon  which  were  figured  the  CJraces  and  the  Hours;  in  one  hand 
she  held  a  pomegranate,  in  the  other  a  scepter  surmounted  by  a  cuckoo.  Of  the 
extant  representations  of  Juno  the  most  famous  are  the  Argive  Hera  (Fig.  9 
in  the  text),  the  torso  in  Vienna  from  Ephesus,  the  Hera  of  the  Vatican  at  Rome, 
the  bronze  statuette  in  the  Cabinet  of  Coins  and  Antiquities  in  Vienna,  the 
Farnese  bust  in  the  National  Museum  in  Naples,  the  Ludovisi  bust  in  the  villa 
of  that  name  in  Rome,  the  Pompeian  wall  painting  of  the  marriage  of  Zeus  and 
Hera  (given  by  Baumeister,  Denkmiiler  i,  649;  see  also  Roscher,  13,  2127), 
and  the  Juno  of  Lanuvium. 

27.  Athene  (Athena)  has  some  characteristics  of  the  warlike  kind  in  common 
with  the  Norse  Valkyries,  but  she  is  altogether  a  more  ideal  conception.  The  best 
description  of  the  goddess  will  be  found  in  Homer's  Iliad,  5,  730  et  seq. 

The  derivation  of  Athene  is  uncertain  (Preller).  Related,  say  some,  to  ather, 
aidrip,  the  clear  upper  air ;  say  others;  to  the  word  anthos,  Avdos,  'a  flower' —  virgin 
bloom  ;  or  (see  Roscher,  p.  684)  to  ai^er,  adiip,  'spear  point.'  Max  Muller  derives 
Athene  from  the  root  ah,  which  yields  the  Sanskrit  Ahana  and  the  Greek  Daphne, 
the  Dawn  (?).  Hence  Athene  is  the  Dawn-goddess;  but  she  is  also  the  goddess 
of  wisdom,  because  "  the  goddess  who  caused  people  to  wake  was  involuntarily 
conceived  as  the  goddess  who  caused  people  to  know"  (Science  of  Language, 
I,  548-551).    This  is  poor  philology. 

Epithets  applied  to  Athene  are  the  bright-eyed,  the  gray-eyed,  the  aegis-bearing, 
the  unwearied  daughter  of  Zeus. 

The  festival  of  the  Panathensea  was  celebrated  at  Athens  yearly  in  commemo- 
ration of  the  union  of  the  Attic  tribes.    See  C.  176-181. 

The  name  Pallas  characterizes  the  goddess  as  the  brandisherol  lightnings.  Her 
Palladium  — or  sacred  image  —  holds  always  high  in  air  the  brandished  lance. 

Minerva,  or  Menerva,  is  connected  with  Latin  mens,  Greek  menos,  Sanskrit 
manas,^ mind' ;  not  with  the   Latin  w^w^, 'morning.'    The  relation  is  not  very 


COMMENTARV  4- 1 

plausible  between  the  awakening  of  the  clay  and  the  awakening  of  thought  (Max 
Miiller,  Sci.  Lang,  i,  552). 

For  the  meaning  of  the  Gorgon,  see  Commentary  on  the  myth  of  Perseus. 

Illustrative.    Byron,  Childe  Harold,  4,  96,  the  eloquent  passage  beginning. 

Can  tyrants  but  by  tj'rants  conquerd  be, 
And  Freedom  find  no  champion  and  no  child 
Such  as  Columbia  saw  arise  when  she 
Sprung  forth  a  Pallas,  arm'd  and  undefiled .' 

Shakespeare,  Tempest,  IV,  i;  As  Vou  Like  It,  I,  iii;  Winter's  Tale,  IV,  iii ;  Peri- 
cles, II,  iii ;  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  4,  500;  Comus,  701  ;  Arcades,  23  ;  Lewis  Morris' 
Athene,  in  The  Epic  of  Hades;  Byron,  Childe  Harold,  2.  1-15,87,91  ;  Ruskin's 
Lectures  entitled  "The  Queen  of  the  Air"  (Athene)  ;  Thomas  Woolner's  Pallas 
Athene,  in  Tiresias. 

In  Art.  The  finest  of  the  statues  of  this  goddess  was  by  Phidias,  in  the  Par- 
thenon, or  temple  of  Athena,  at  Athens.  The  Athena  of  the  Parthenon  has 
disappeared ;  but  there  is  good  ground  to  believe  that  we  have,  in  several  extant 
statues  and  busts,  the  artist's  conception.  (See  Frontispiece,  the  Lemnian  Athena, 
and  Fig.  53,  the  Hope  Athena,  ancient  marble  at  Deepdene,  Surrey.)  The 
figure  is  characterized  by  grave  and  dignified  beauty,  and  freedom  from  any 
transient  expression ;  in  other  words,  by  repose.  The  most  important  copy 
extant  is  of  the  Roman  period.  The  goddess  was  represented  standing ;  in  one 
hand  a  spear,  in  the  other  a  statue  of  Victory.  Her  helmet,  highly  decorated,  was 
surmounted  by  a  Sphinx.  The  statue  was  forty  feet  in  height,  and,  like  the  Jupiter, 
covered  with  ivory  and  gold.  The  eyes  were  of  marble,  and  probably  painted  to 
represent  the  iris  and  pupil.  The  Parthenon,  in  which  this  statue  stood,  was  also 
constructed  under  the  direction  and  superintendence  of  Phidias.  Its  exterior  was 
enriched  with  sculptures,  many  of  them  from  the  hand  of  the  same  artist.  The 
Elgin  Marbles  now  in  the  British  Museum  are  a  part  of  them.  Also  remarkable 
are  the  Minerva  Bellica  (Capitol,  Rome) ;  the  Athena  of  the  Acropolis  Museum ; 
the  Athena  of  the  /Egina  Marbles  (Glyptothek,  Munich) ;  the  Minerva  Medica 
(Vatican) ;  the  Athena  of  Velletri  in  the  Louvre.  (See  Fig.  10.)  In  modern 
sculpture,  especially  excellent  are  Thorwaldsen's  Minerva  and  Prometheus,  and 
Cellini's  Minerva  (on  the  base  of  his  Perseus).  In  modern  painting,  Tintoretto's 
Minerva  defeating  Mars. 

28.  While  the  Latin  god  Mars  corresponds  with  Ares,  he  has  also  not  a  few 
points  of  similarity  with  the  Greek  Phoebus ;  for  both  names,  Mars  and  Phoebus, 
indicate  the  quality  shining.  In  Rome,  the  Campus  Martius  (field  of  Mars)  was 
sacred  to  this  deity.  Here  military  maneuvers  and  athletic  contests  took  place ; 
here  Mars  was  adored  by  sacrifice,  and  here  stood  his  temple,  where  his  priests, 
the  Salii,  watched  over  the  sacred  spear  and  the  shield,  Ancile,  that  fell  from 
heaven  in  the  reign  of  Numa  Pompilius.  Generals  supplicated  Mars  for  victory, 
and  dedicated  to  him  the  spoils  of  war.  See  Roscher,  pp.  478,  486,  on  the  funda- 
mental significance,  ]3hilosophical  and  physical,  of  Ares.  On  the  derivation  of 
;he  Latin  name  Mars,  see  Roscher  (end  of  article  on  Apollo). 


472  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Illustrative  in  Art.  Of  archaic  figures,  that  upon  the  so-called  Fran9ois  Vase  in 
Florence  represents  Ares  bearded  and  with  the  armor  of  a  Homeric  warrior. 
In  the  art  of  the  second  half  of  the  fifth  century  B.C.,  he  is  represented  as  beard- 
less, standing  with  spear  and  helmet  and,  generally,  chlamys  (short  warrior's  cloak) ; 
so  the  marble  Ares  statue  (called  the  Borghese  Achilles)  in  the  Louvre.  There 
is  a  later  type  (preferred  in  Rome)  of  the  god  in  Corinthian  helmet  pushed  back 
from  the  forehead,  the  right  hand  leaning  on  a  spear,  in  the  left  a  sword  with 
point  upturned,  over  the  left  arm  a  chlamys.  The  finest  representation  of  the 
deity  extant  is  the  Ares  Ludovisi  in  Rome,  probably  of  the  second  half  of  the 
fourth  century  B.C.,  —  a  sitting  figure,  beautiful  in  form  and  feature,  with  an  Eros 
playing  at  his  feet.  (See  Fig.  ii.)  Modern  sculpture:  Thorwaldsen's  relief. 
Mars  and  Cupid.    Modern  painting,   Raphael's  Mars  (text,  Fig.  12). 

29.  On  the  derivation  of  Hephzestus,  see  Roscher,  p.  2037.  From  Greek  apli'c, 
"  to  kindle,'  or pha, "  to  shine,'  or  spha, '  to  burn.'  The  Latin  Vulcan,  while  a  god  of 
fire,  is  not  represented  by  the  Romans  as  possessed  of  technical  skill.  It  is  said  that 
Romulus  built  him  a  temple  in  Rome  and  instituted  the  Vulcanalia,  —  a  festival  in 
honor  of  the  god.  The  name  Vulcanus,  or  Volcanus,  is  popularly  connected  with 
the  \.^'i\xs.fulgere, '  to  flash  '  or  '  lighten,'/z^/^r,  a  '  flash  of  lightning,'  etc.  It  is  quite 
natural  that,  in  many  legends,  fire  should  play  an  active  part  in  the  creation  of  man. 
The  primitive  belief  of  the  Indo-Germanic  race  was  that  the  fire-god,  descending 
to  earth,  became  the  first  man  ;  and  that,  therefore,  the  spirit  of  man  was  composed 
of  fire.    Vulcan  is  also  called  by  the  Romans  Mulciber,  from  mulceo,  '  to  soften.' 

Illustrative.  Shakespeare,  Twelfth  Night,  V,  i ;  Much  Ado  About  Nothing,  I,  i ; 
Troilus  and  Cressida,  I,  iii ;  Hamlet.  Ill,  ii ;  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  i,  740: 

From  morn 
To  noon  he  fell,  from  noon  to  dewy  eve, 
A  summer's  day  ;  and  with  the  setting  sun 
Dropt  from  the  zenith,  like  a  falling  star, 
On  Lcmnos,  the  /Egean  isle. 

In  Art.  Various  antique  illustrations  are  extant  of  the  god  as  a  smith  with 
hammer,  or  at  the  forge  (text.  Fig.  13) ;  one  of  him  working  with  the  Cyclopes; 
a  vase  painting  of  him  adorning  Pandora ;  one  of  him  assisting  at  the  birth  of 
Minerva;  and  one  of  his  return  to  Olympus  led  by  Bacchus  and  Comus.  Of 
modern  paintings  the  following  are  noteworthy:  J.  A.  Wiertz,  Forge  of  Vulcan; 
Velasquez,  Forge  of  Vulcan  (Museum,  Madrid)  (text.  Fig.  56) ;  the  Forge  of 
Vulcan  by  Tintoretto.  Thorwaldsen's  piece  of  statuary,  Vulcan  forging  Arrows  for 
Cupid,  is  justly  famous. 

30.  Castalia:  on  the  slopes  of  Parnassus,  sacred  to  Apollo  and  the  Muses. 
Cephissus:    in   Phocis  and   Boeotia.     (Another   Cephissus    flows  near   Athens.) 

Interpretative.  The  birth,  wanderings,  return  of  Apollo,  and  his  struggle  with 
the  Python,  etc.,  are  explained  by  many  scholars  as  symbolic  of  the  annual  course 
of  the  sun.  Apollo  is  born  of  Leto,  who  is,  according  to  hypothesis,  the  Night 
from  which  the  morning  sun  issues.  His  conflict  with  the  dragon  reminds  one  of 
Siegfried's  combat  and  that  of  St.  George.    The  dragon  is  variously  interpreted 


COMMENTARY  473 

as  symbolical  of  darkness,  mephitic  vapors,  or  the  forces  of  winter,  which  are 
overcome  by  the  rays  of  the  springtide  sun.  The  dragon  is  called  Delphyne,  oc 
Python.  The  latter  name  may  be  derived  simply  from  that  part  of  I'hocis  (Pytho) 
where  the  town  of  Delphi  was  situate,  or  that  again  from  the  Greek  root  puth, '  to 
rot,'  because  there  the  serpent  was  left  by  Apollo  to  decay;  or  from  the  Greek 
path,  '  to  inquire,'  with  reference  to  the  consultation  of  the  Delphian  or  Pythian 
oracle.  "  It  is  open  to  students  to  regard  the  dolphin  as  only  one  of  the  many 
animals  whose  earlier  worship  is  concentrated  in  Apollo,  or  to  take  the  creature 
for  the  symbol  of  spring  when  seafaring  becomes  easier  to  mortals,  or  to  interpret 
the  dolphin  as  the  result  of  a  volks-etymologie  (popular  derivation),  in  which  the 
name  Delphi  (meaning  originally  a  hollow  in  the  hills)  was  connected  with  de/phii, 
the  dolphin."  —  Lang,  Myth,  Ritual,  etc.,  2, 197.  Apollo  is  also  called  Lycius,  which 
means,  not  the  wolf-slayer,  as  it  sometimes  stated,  for  the  wolf  is  sacred  to  Apollo, 
but  either  the  wolf-god  (as  inheriting  an  earlier  wolf-cult)  or  the  golden  god  of 
Light.  See  Preller  and  Roscher.  This  derivation  is  more  probable  than  that 
from  Lycia  in  Asia  Minor,  where  the  god  was  said  originally  to  have  been  wor- 
shiped. To  explain  certain  rational  myths  of  Apollo  as  referring  to  the  annual 
and  diurnal  journeys  of  the  sun  is  justifiable.  To  explain  the  savage  and  senseless 
survivals  of  the  Apollo-myth  in  that  way  is  impossible. 

Festivals.  The  most  important  were  as  follows:  (i)  The  Delphinia,  in  May, 
to  celebrate  the  genial  influence  of  the  young  sun  upon  the  waters,  in  opening 
navigation,  in  restoring  warmth  and  life  to  the  creatures  of  the  wave,  especially 
to  the  dolphins,  which  were  highly  esteemed  by  the  superstitious  seafarers,  fisher- 
men, merchants,  etc.  (2)  The  Thargelia,  in  the  Greek  month  of  that  name,  our  May, 
which  heralded  the  approach  of  the  hot  season.  The  purpose  of  this  festival  was 
twofold :  to  propitiate  the  deity  of  the  sun  and  forfend  the  sickness  of  summer ; 
to  celebrate  the  ripening  of  vegetation  and  return  thanks  for  first-fruits.  These 
festivals  were  held  in  Athens,  Delos,  and  elsewhere.  (3)  The  Hyacinthian  fast 
and  feast  of  Sparta,  corresponding  in  both  features  to  the  Thargelian.  It  was  held 
in  July,  in  the  oppressive  days  of  the  Dog  Star,  Sirius.  (4)  The  Carnean  of  Sparta, 
celebrated  in  August.  It  added  to  the  propitiatory  features  of  the  Hyacinthian,  a 
thanksgiving  for  the  vintage.  (5)  Another  vintage-festival  was  the  Pyanepsian, 
in  Athens.  (6)  The  Daphnephoria :  "  Familiar  to  many  English  people  from  Sir 
Frederick  Leighton's  picture.  This  feast  is  believed  to  have  symbolized  the 
year.  .  .  .  An  olive  branch  supported  a  central  ball  of  brass,  beneath  which  was 
a  smaller  ball,  and  thence  little  globes  were  hung."  "  The  greater  ball  means  the 
sun,  the  smaller  the  moon,  the  tiny  globes  the  stars,  and  the  three  hundred  and 
sixty-five  laurel  garlands  used  in  the  feast  are  understood  to  symbolize  the  days." 
(Proclus  and  Paiisanias.) — Lang,  Myth,  Ritual,  etc.,  2.  194,  195.  Apollo  is  also 
called  the  Sminthian,  or  Mouse-god,  because  he  was  regarded  either  as  the  pro- 
tector or  as  the  destroyer  of  mice.  In  the  Troad  mice  were  fed  in  his  temple ; 
elsewhere  he  was  honored  as  freeing  the  country  from  them.  As  Mr.  Lang  says 
(Myth,  Ritual,  etc.,  2,  201),  this  is  intelligible  "if  the  vermin  which  had  once 
been  sacred  became  a  pest  in  the  eyes  of  later  generations." 


474  '^'HE  CLASSIC   MYTHS 

Oracle  of  Delphi,  li  IihcI  been  observed  at  a  very  early  period  that  the  goats 
feeding  on  Parnassus  were  thrown  into  convulsions  when  they  approached  a 
certain  long  deep  cleft  in  the  side  of  the  mountain.  This  was  owing  to  a  peculiar 
vapor  arising  out  of  the  cavern,  and  a  certain  goatherd  is  said  to  have  tried  its 
effects  upon  himself.  Inhaling  the  intoxicating  air,  he  was  affected  in  the  same 
manner  as  the  cattle  had  been;  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  surrounding  countrv, 
unable  to  explain  the  circumstance,  imputed  the  convulsive  ravings  to  which  he 
gave  utterance  while  under  the  power  of  the  exhalations  to  a  divine  inspiration. 
The  fact  was  speedily  spread  abroad,  and  a  temple  was  erected  on  the  spot.  The 
prophetic  influence  was  at  first  variously  attributed  to  the  goddess  Earth,  to  Nep- 
tune, Themis,  and  others,  but  it  was  at  length  assigned  to  Apollo,  and  to  him  alone. 
A  priestess  was  appointed  whose  office  it  was  to  inhale  the  hallowed  air,  and  she 
was  named  the  Pythia.  She  was  prepared  for  this  duty  by  previous  ablution  at 
the  fountain  of  Castalia,  and  being  crowned  with  laurel  was  seated  upon  a  tripod 
similarly  adorned,  which  was  placed  over  the  chasm  whence  the  divine  afflatus 
proceeded.    Her  inspired  words  while  thus  situated  were  interpreted  by  the  priests. 

Other  famous  oracles  were  that  of  Trophonius  in  Boeotia  and  that  of  the 
Egyptian  Apis.  Since  those  who  descended  into  the  cave  at  Lebadea  to  consult 
the  oracle  of  Trophonius  were  noticed  to  return  dejected  and  melancholy,  the 
proverb  arose  which  was  applied  to  a  low-spirited  person,  "  He  has  been  consult- 
ing the  oracle  of  Trophonius." 

At  Memphis  the  sacred  bull  Apis  gave  answer  to  those  who  consulted  him,  by 
the  manner  in  which  he  received  or  rejected  what  was  presented  to  him.  If  the 
bull  refused  food  from  the  hand  of  the  inquirer,  it  was  considered  an  unfavorable 
sign,  and  the  contrary  when  he  received  it. 

It  used  to  be  questioned  whether  oracular  responses  ought  to  be  ascribed  to 
mere  human  contrivance  or  to  the  agency  of  evil  spirits.  The  latter  opinion 
would  of  course  obtain  during  ages  of  superstition,  when  evil  spirits  were  credited 
with  an  influence  over  human  affairs.  A  third  theory  has  been  advanced  since 
the  phenomena  of  mesmerism  have  attracted  attention :  that  something  like  the 
mesmeric  trance  was  induced  in  the  Pythoness,  and  the  faculty  of  clairvoyance 
called  into  action. 

Scholars  have  also  sought  to  determine  when  the  pagan  oracles  ceased  to  give 
responses.  Ancient  Christian  writers  assert  that  they  became  silent  at  the  birth 
of  Christ,  and  were  heard  no  more  after  that  date.  Milton  adopts  this  view  in  his 
Hymn  on  the  Nativity,  and  in  lines  of  solemn  and  elevated  beauty  pictures  the 
consternation  of  the  heathen  idols  at  the  advent  of  the  Saviour : 

The  Oracles  are  dumb  ; 

No  voice  or  hideous  hum 

Runs  through  the  arched  roof  in  words  deceiving. 

Apollo  from  his  shrine 

Can  no  more  divine, 

With  hollow  shriek  the  steep  of  Delphos  leaving. 

No  nightly  trance,  or  breathed  spell 

Inspires  the  pale-eyed  priest  from  the  prophetic  cell. 


COMMENTARY 


475 


Illustrative.  Spenser,  Faerie  Queene,  i,  2,  2;  i,  2,  29;  i,  11,  31  ;  i,  12,  2.  Sir 
Philip  Sidney,  Astrophel  and  Stella;  as,  for  instance,  the  pretty  conceit  beginning 

Phoebus  was  judge  between  Jove,  Mars,  and  Love, 
Of  those  three  gods,  whose  arms  the  fairest  were. 

Dekker,  The  Sun's  Darling ;  Burns  (as  in  the  Winter  Night)  and  other  Scotch 
song-writers  find  it  hard  to  keep  Phoebus  out  of  their  verses ;  Spenser,  Epitha- 
lamion ;  Shakespeare,  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  II,  1  (Apollo  and  Daphne) ; 
Cymbeline  (Cloten's  Serenade);  Love's  Labour's  Lost,  IV,  iii ;  Taming  of  the 
Shrew,  Induction  ii ;  Winter's  Tale,  II,  i ;  III,  i ;  III,  ii ;  Titus  Andronicus,  IV,  i ; 
Drayton,  Song  8 ;  Tickell,  To  Apollo  making  Love ;  Swift,  Apollo  Outwitted ; 
Pope,  Essay  on  Criticism,  34  ;  Dunciad,  4,  116;  Prologue  to  Satires,  231 ;  Miscel- 
laneous, 7,  16;  Armstrong,  The  Art  of  Preserving  Health. 

Poems.  Drummond  of  Hawthornden,  Song  to  Phoebus ;  Keats,  Hymn  to 
Apollo;  A.  Mary  F.  Robinson,  A  Search  for  Apollo,  and  In  Apollo's  Garden; 
Shelley,  Homer's  Hymn  to  Apollo ;  Aubrey  De  Vere,  Lines  under  Delphi ; 
Lewis  Morris,  Apollo,  in  The  Epic  of  Hades ;    R.  W.  Dixon,  Apollo  Pythius. 

The  Python.  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  10,  531  ;  Shelley,  Adonais.  Oracles. 
Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  i.  12,  515;  5,  382;  10,  182;  Paradise  Regained,!.  395,430, 
456,  463  ;  3,  13  ;  4,  275  ;  Hymn  on  the  Nativity,  173.  In  Cowper's  poem  of  Yardley 
Oak  there  are  mythological  allusions  appropriate  to  this  subject.  On  Dodona, 
Byron,  Childe  Harold,  2,  53  ;  Tennyson,  The  Talking  Oak.  Byron  alludes  to  the 
oracle  of  Delphi  when  speaking  of  Rousseau,  whose  writings  he  conceives  did 
much  to  bring  on  the  French  Revolution:  Childe  Harold,  3,  81, — 

For  then  he  was  inspired,  and  from  him  came, 
As  from  the  Pythian's  mystic  cave  of  yore. 
Those  oracles  which  set  the  world  in  flame, 
Nor  ceased  to  burn  till  kingdoms  were  no  more. 

In  Art.  One  of  the  most  esteemed  of  all  the  remains  of  ancient  sculpture  is 
.the  statue  of  Apollo,  called  the  Belvedere  from  the  name  of  the  apartment  of  the 
Pope's  palace  at  Rome  in  which  it  is  placed  (see  Fig.  15).  The  artist  is  unknown. 
It  is  conceded  to  be  a  work  of  Roman  art,  of  about  the  first  century  of  our  era 
(and  follows  a  type  fashioned  by  a  Greek  sculptor  of  the  Hellenistic  period,  prob- 
ably in  bronze).  A  variation  of  the  type  has  been  discovered  in  a  bronze  statuette 
which  represents  Apollo  holding  in  the  left  hand  an  aegis.  Some  scholars  have 
therefore  surmised  that  the  Apollo  of  the  original  was  similarly  equipped.  The 
Belvedere  Apollo,  however,  is  a  .standing  figure,  in  marble,  more  than  seven  feet 
high,  naked  except  for  the  cloak  which  is  fastened  around  the  neck  and  hangs  over 
the  extended  left  arm.  It  is  restored  to  represent  the  god  in  the  moment  when  he 
has  shot  the  arrow  to  destroy  the  monster  Python.  The  victorious  divinity  is  in 
I  he  act  of  stepping  forward.  The  left  arm  which  seems  to  have  held  the  bow  is 
outstretched,  and  the  head  is  turned  in  the  same  direction.  In  attitude  and  pro 
portion  the  graceful  majesty  of  the  figure  is  unsurpassed.  The  effect  is  completed 
by  the  countenance,  where,  on  the  perfection  of  youthful  godlike  beauty,  there 


476  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

dwells  the  consciousness  of  triumphant  power.  To  this  statue  Byron  alludes  in 
Childe  Harold,  4,  161  : 

Or  view  the  Lord  of  the  unerring  bow, 
The  God  of  life,  and  poetry,  and  light, — 
The  Sun,  in  human  limbs  arrayed,  and  brow 
All  radiant  from  his  triumph  in  the  fight : 
The  shaft  hath  just  been  shot  —  the  arrow  bright 
With  an  immortal's  vengeance  ;  in  his  eye 
And  nostril,  beautiful  disdain,  and  might 
And  majesty  flash  their  full  lightnings  by. 
Developing  in  that  one  glance  the  Deity. 

The  standing  figure  in  our  text  reproduces  this  conception.^  Also  famous  in 
sculpture  are  the  "Adonis"  Apollo  of  the  Vatican  (Fig.  14,  text);  the  Greek 
bronze  from  Thessaly  (Fig.  16,  text);  the  Palatine  Apollo  in  the  Vatican  (Fig. 
66,  text);  the  Apollo  Citharoedus  of  the  National  Museum,  Naples,  and  the 
Gljptothek,  Munich;  the  Lycian  Apollo;  the  Apollo  Nomios;  Apollo  of  Thera; 
the  Apollo  of  Michelangelo  (National  Museum,  Florence).  A  painting  o^ 
romantic  interest  is  Paolo  Veronese's  St.  Christina  refusing  to  adore  Apollo 
Of  symbolic  import  is  the  Apollo  (Sunday)  by  Raphael  in  the  Vatican.  Phoebus 
and  Boreas  by  J.  F.  Millet. 

32.  Latona.  A  theory  of  the  numerous  love-affairs  of  Jupiter  is  given  in  24 
of  the  text.  Delos  is  the  central  island  of  the  Cyclades  group  in  the  .Flgean. 
With  its  temple  of  Apollo  it  was  exceedingly  prosperous. 

Interpretative.  Latona  (Leto),  according  to  ancient  interpreters,  was  night, — 
the  shadow,  therefore,  of  Juno  (Hera),  if  Hera  be  the  splendor  of  heaven.  But 
the  early  myth-makers  would  hardly  have  reasoned  so  abstrusely.  It  is  not  at  all 
certain  that  the  name  Leit^  means  darkness  (Preller  i,  190,  note  4) ;  and  even  if 
light  is  born  of  or  after  darkness,  the  sun  (Apollo)  and  the  moon  (Artemis,  or 
Diana)  can  hardly  be  considered  to  be  twins  of  Darkness  (Leto),  for  they  do  not 
illuminate  the  heavens  at  the  same  time.  —  L.\ng,  Myth.  Ritual,  etc.,  2,  199. 

Illustrative.    Byron's  allusion  to  Delos  in  Don  Juan,  3,  86 : 

The  isles  of  Greece  !  the  isles  of  Greece  ! 

Where  burning  Sappho  loved  and  sung, 
^^'here  grew  the  arts  of  war  and  peace. 

Where  Delos  rose,  and  Phoebus  sprung  I 
Eternal  summer  gilds  them  yet. 
But  all,  except  their  sun,  is  set. 

See  Milton's  Sonnet,  "  I  did  but  prompt  the  age  to  quit  their  clogs,"  for  allusion 
to  Latona. 

In  Art.  In  the  shrine  of  Latona  in  Delos  there  was,  in  the  days  of  Athenaeus, 
u  shapeless  wooden  idol. 

Diana.  The  Latin  Diana  means  cither  "goddess  of  the  bright  heaven,"  or 
"  goddess  of  the  bright  day."  She  is  frequently  identified  with  Artemis,  Hecate. 
1  Furtwangler  (Meisterw.  d.  gr.  Plastik)  condemns  the  aegis. 


COMMENTARY 


477 


Luna,  and  Selene.  According  to  one  tradition,  Apollo  and  Diana  were  born  at 
Ortygia,  near  Ephesus.  Diana  of  the  Ephesians,  referred  to  (Acts  xix,  28),  was  a 
goddess  of  not  at  all  the  maidenly  characteristics  that  belonged  to  the  Greek 
Artemis  (Roscher,  p.  591  ;  A.  Lang,  2,  217).  Other  titles  of  Artemis  are  Munj-- 
chia,  the  moon-goddess;  Calliste,  the  fair,  or  the  she-bear;  Orthia,  the  ser-ere, 
worshiped  among  the  Taurians  with  human  sacrifices ;  Agrotera,  the  huntress  ; 
Pythia  ;  Eileithyia,  goddess  of  childbirth  ;  Cynthia,  born  on  Mount  Cynthus. 

Illustrative.  Spenser,  Faerie  Queene,  i,  7,  5  ;  i,  12,  7  ;  Shakespeare,  Merchant 
of  Venice,  V,  i,  "  Come,  ho,  and  wake  Diana  with  a  hymn,"  etc. ;  Twelfth  Night, 
I,  iv  ;  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  I,  iv  ;  All 's  Well  that  Ends  Well,  I,  iii ;  IV,  ii ; 
IV,  iv ;  Butler,  Iludibras,  3,  2,  1448.  Poems:  B.  W.  I'rocter,  The  Worship  of  Dian  ; 
W.  W.  Story,  Artemis;  E.  W.  Gosse,  The  Praise  of  Artemis;  E.  Arnold,  Ilymn 
of  the  Priestess  of  Diana;  Wordsworth,  To  Lycoris ;  Lewis  Morris,  Artemis,  in 
The  Epic  of  Hades;  A.  Lang,  To  Artemis.  Phoebe  (Diana) :  Spenser,  Epithala- 
mion ;  Keats,  To  Psyche.  Cynthia  (Diana):  Spenser,  Prothalamion,  Epithala- 
mion ;  Milton,  Hymn  on  the  Nativity;   II.  K.  White,  Ode  to  Contemplation. 

In  Art.  In  art  the  goddess  is  represented  high-girt  for  the  chase,  either  in  the 
act  of  drawing  an  arrow  from  her  quiver  or  watching  her  missile  in  its  flight.  She 
is  often  attended  by  the  hind.  Sometimes,  as  moon-goddess,  she  bears  a  torch. 
Occasionally  she  is  clad  in  a  chiton,  or  robe  of  many  folds,  flowing  to  her  feet. 
The  Diana  of  the  Hind  {a  la  Biche),  in  the  Palace  of  the  Louvre  (see  Fig.  iS), 
may  be  considered  the  counterpart  of  the  Apollo  Belvedere.  The  attitude  much 
resembles  that  of  Apollo,  the  sizes  correspond  and  also  the  styles  of  execution. 
The  Diana  of  the  Hind  is  a  work  of  a  high  order,  though  by  no  means  equal  to 
the  Apollo.  The  attitude  is  that  of  hurried  and  eager  motion,  the  face  that  of  a 
huntress  in  the  excitement  of  the  chase.  The  left  hand  of  the  goddess  is  extended 
over  the  forehead  of  the  hind  which  runs  by  her  side,  the  right  arm  reaches 
backward  over  the  shoulder  to  draw  an  arrow  from  the  quiver.  Fig.  19  in  the 
text  is  the  Artemis  Knagia  (Diana  Cnagia),  named  after  Cnageus,  a  servant  of 
Diana  who  assisted  in  transferring  the  statue  from  Crete  to  Sparta.  In  Dresden 
there  is  a  statue  of  Artemis  in  the  style  of  Praxiteles  (Fig.  68.  text) ;  and  in  the 
Louvre  an  ancient  marble  called  the  Artemis  of  Gabii  (F"ig.  77,  text). 

In  modern  painting,  noteworthy  are  the  Diana  and  her  Nymphs  of  Rubens  ; 
"Correggio's  Diana  (Fig.  17) ;  Jules  Lefebvre's  Diana  and  her  Nymphs;  Domeni- 
chino's  Diana's  Chase.  Note  also  the  allegorical  Luna  (Monday)  of  Raphael  in 
the  Vatican;  and  D.  G.  Rossetti's  Diana,  in  crayons. 

34.  Interpretative.  The  worship  of  Aphrodite  was  probably  of  Semitic  origin, 
but  was  early  introduced  into  Greece.  The  Aphrodite  of  Hesiod  and  Homer  dis- 
plays both  Oriental  and  Grecian  characteristics.  All  Semitic  nations,  except  the 
Hebrews,  worshiped  a  supreme  goddess  who  presided  over  the  moon  (or  the 
Star  of  Love),  and  over  all  animal  and  vegetable  life  and  growth.  She  was 
the  Istar  of  the  Assyrians,  the  Astarte  of  the  Phoenicians,  and  is  the  analogue  of 
the  Greek  Aphrodite  and  the  Latin  Venus.  See  Roscher,  p.  390,  etc.  The  native 
Greek  deity  of  love  would  appear  to  have  been,  however,  Dione,  goddess  of  the 


478  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

moist  and  productive  soil  (C.  26),  who  passes  in  the  Iliad  (5.  370,  428)  as  the 
mother  of  Aphrodite,  is  worshiped  at  Dodona  by  the  side  of  Zeus,  and  is 
regarded  by  Euripides  as   Thyone,  mother  of  Dionysus  (Preller  i,  259). 

The  epithets  and  names  most  frequently  applied  to  Aphrodite  are  the  Paphian, 
Cypris  (the  Cyprus-born),  Cytherea,  Erycina  (from  Mount  Eryx),  Pandemos 
(goddess  of  vulgar  love),  Pelagia  (Aphrodite  of  the  sea),  Urania  (Aphrodite  of 
ideal  love),  Anadyomene  (rising  from  the  water) ;  she  is,  also,  the  sweetly  smil- 
ing, laughter-loving,  bright,  golden,  fruitful,  winsome,  flower-faced,  blushing, 
swift-eyed,  golden-crowned. 

She  had  temples  and  groves  in  Paphos,  Abydos,  Samos,  Ephesus.  Cyprus, 
Cythere,  in  some  of  which  —  for  instance,  Paphos  —  gorgeous  annual  festivals 
were  held.    See  Childe  Harold,  i,  66. 

Venus  was  a  deity  of  extreme  antiquity  among  the  Romans,  but  not  of  great 
importance  until  she  had  acquired  certain  attributes  of  the  Eastern  Aphrodite. 
She  was  worshiped  as  god'dess  of  love,  as  presiding  over  marriage,  as  the  god- 
dess who  turns  the  hearts  of  men,  and,  later,  even  as  a  goddess  of  victory.  A 
festival  in  her  honor,  called  the  Veneralia,  was  held  in  Rome  in  April. 

Illustrative.  See  Chaucer's  Knight's  Tale  for  frequent  references  to  the  god- 
dess of  love  ;  also  the  Court  of  Love  ;  Spenser's  Prothalamion,  and  Epithalamion, 
"Handmaids  of  the  Cyprian  queen";  Shakespeare,  Tempest,  IV,  i;  Merchant  of 
Venice,  II,  vi ;  Troilus  and  Cressida,  IV,  v  ;  Cymbeline,  V,  v ;  Romeo  and  Juliet, 
II,  i;  Milton,  L' Allegro;  Paradise  Regained,  2,  214;  Comus,  124;  Pope,  Rape  of 
the  Lock  4, 135 ;  Spring,  65 ;  Summer,  61 ;  Thomas  Woolner,  Pygmalion  (Cytherea). 

Poems.  Certain  parts  of  Shakespeare's  Venus  and  Adonis  and  occasional 
stanzas  in  Swinburne's  volume,  I^aus  Veneris,  may  be  adapted  to  illustrative  pur- 
poses. Chaucer,  The  Complaint  of  Mars  and  Venus  ;  Thomas  Wyatt,  The  Lover 
prayeth  Venus  to  conduct  him  to  the  Desired  Haven.  See  the  melodious  chorus 
to  Aphrodite  in  Swinburne's  Atalanta  in  Calydon ;  Lewis  Morris,  Aphrodite,  in 
The  Epic  of  Hades  ;  Thomas  Gordon  Hake,  The  Birth  of  Venus,  in  New  Symbols  ; 
D.  G.  Rossetti,  Sonnets;  Venus  Verticordia,  Venus  Victrix. 

35.  In  Art.  One  of  the  most  famous  of  ancient  paintings  was  the  Venus  rising 
from  the  foam,  of  Apelles.  The  Venus  found  (1820)  in  the  island  of  Melos,  or  of 
Milo  (see  text,  opp.  p.  32),  now  to  be  seen  in  the  I^ouvre  in  Paris,  is  the  work  of 
some  sculptor  of  about  the  fourth  century  B.C.  Some  say  that  the  left  hand 
uplifted  held  a  mirrorlike  shield ;  others,  an  apple ;  still  others,  a  trident ;  and 
that  the  goddess  was  Amphitrite.  A  masterpiece  of  Praxiteles  was  the  Venus 
of  Cnidos,  based  upon  which  are  the  Venus  of  the  Capitoline  in  Rome  and  the 
Venus  de'  Medici  in  Florence.  Also  the  Venus  of  the  Vatican,  which  is,  in 
my  opinion,  superior  to  both.  The  Venus  of  the  Medici  was  in  the  possession 
of  the  princes  of  that  name  in  Rome  when,  about  two  hundred  years  ago,  it  first 
attracted  attention.  An  inscription  on  the  base  assigns  it  to  Cleomenes,  an 
Athenian  sculptor  of  200  B.C.,  but  the  authenticity  of  the  inscription  is  doubtful. 
There  is  a  stor\'  that  the  artist  was  emploved  by  public  authority  to  make  a  statue 
exhibiting  the  jierfeciion  of  female  Ijcauly,  and  that  to  aid  him  in  his  task  the 


COMMKNTARV 


479 


most  perfect  forms  the  city  could  supply  were  furnished  him  for  models.    Note 
Thomson's  allusion  in  the  Summer  : 


And  Byron's 


So  stands  the  statue  that  enchants  the  world  , 
So  bending  tries  to  veil  the  matchless  boast, 
J'he  mingled  beauties  of  exulting  (ireece. 

There  too  the  goddess  loves  in  stone,  and  fills 

The  air  around  with  beauty.  —  Childe  Harold,  4,  49-53. 


One  of  the  most  beautiful  of  the  Greek  Aphrodites  is  the  Petworth  (opp.  p.  \2C>, 
text). 

Of  modern  paintings  the  most  famous  are  :  the  Sleeping  Venus  and  other 
representations  of  Venus  by  Titian;  the  Birth  of  Venus  by  Bouguereau;  Tin- 
toretto's Cupid,  Venus,  and  Vulcan;  Veronese's  ^'enus  with  Satyr  and  Cupid. 
Modern  sculpture  :  Thorwaldsen's  Venus  with  the  Apple ;  Venus  and  Cupid  ; 
Cellini's  Venus ;  Canova's  Venus  Victrix,  and  the  Venus  in  the  Pitti  Gallery ; 
Rossetti's  Venus  Verticordia  (crayons,  water  colors,  oil). 

36.  Interpretative.  Max  Miiller  traces  Hermes,  child  of  the  Dawn  with  its  fresh 
breezes,  herald  of  the  gods,  spy  of  the  night,  to  the  Vedic  Sarama,  goddess  of 
the  Dawn.  Others  translate  Sarama,  storm.  Roscher  derives  from  the  same 
root  as  Sarameyas  (son  of  Sarama),  with  the  meaning  Ifastener,  the  sii<ift  wiitJ. 
The  invention  of  the  syrinx  is  attributed  also  to  Pan. 

Illustrative.  To  Mercury's  construction  of  the  lyre  out  of  a  tortoise  shell,  Gray 
refers  (Progress  of  Poesy),"  Parent  of  sweet  and  solemn-breathing  airs,  Enchanting 
shell!"  etc.  See  Shakespeare,  King  John,  IV,  ii ;  Henry  IV,  IV,  i;  Richard  III, 
II,  i;  IV,  iii;  Hamlet,  III,  iv ;  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  3,  "  Though  by  their  power- 
ful art  they  bind  Volatile  Hermes";  4,  717;  11,  133;  II  Penseroso,  88;  Comus, 
637,  962.  Poems:  Sir  T.  Martin,  Goethe's  Phoebus  and  Hermes ;  Shelley's  tran.s- 
lation  of  Homer's  Hymn  to  Mercury. 

In  Art.  The  Mercury  in  the  Central  Museum,  Athens ;  Mercury  Belvedere 
(Vatican);  Mercury  in  Repose  (National  Museum,  Naples).  The  Hermes  by 
Praxiteles,  in  Olympia  (text,  opp.  p.  150),  and  the  Hermes  Psychopompos  leading 
to  the  underworld  the  spirit  of  a  woman  who  has  just  died  (text.  Fig.  20 ;  from  a 
relief  sculptured  on  the  tomb  of  Myrrhina),  are  especially  fine  specimens  of 
ancient  sculpture. 

In  modern  sculpture:  Cellini's  Mercury  (base  of  Perseus,  1-oggia  dei  Lanzi, 
Florence) ;  Giov.  di  Bologna's  Flying  Mercury  (bronze,  Bargello,  Florence :  text, 
opp.  p.  330) ;  Thorwaldsen's  Mercury.  In  modern  painting:  Tintoretto's  Mercury 
and  the  Graces  ;  Francesco  Albani's  Mercury  and  Apollo  ;  Claude  Lorrain's  Mer- 
cury and  Battus ;  Turner's  Mercury  and  Argus ;  Raphael's  allegorical  Mercury 
(Wednesday),  Vatican,  Rome;  and  his  Mercury  with  Psyche  (Farnese  Frescoes). 

37.  Interpretative.  The  name  Hestia  (Latin  Vesta)  has  been  variously  derived 
from  roots  meaning  to  sit,  to  statid,  to  burn.  The  two  former  are  consistent  with 
the  domestic  nature  of  the  goddess;  the  latter  with  her  relation  to  the  bearth-fire. 
She  is  "'  first  of  the  goddesses,"  the  holy,  the  chaste,  the  sacred. 


480  'I'HK  Cr.ASSlC  M  Nil  IS 

Illustrative.  Milton,  II  Penseioso  (Melancholy),  "  T//rr  liric;lif  liairerl  Vpsta  long 
of  vore  To  solitary  Saturn  bore,"  etc. 

38.  (i)  Cupid  (Eros).  References  and  allusions  to  Cupid  throng  our  poetry. 
Only  a  few  are  here  given.  Shakespeare,  Romeo  and  Juliet,  1,  iv ;  Merchant  of 
Venice,  II,  vi;  Merry  Wives,  II,  ii;  Much  Ado  About  Nothing,  I,  i;  II,  i;  III,  ii ; 
Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  I,  i;  II,  ii ;  IV,  i;  Cymbeline,  II,  iv ;  Milton,  Comus, 
445,  1004;  llerrick.  The  Cheat  of  Cupid;  Pope,  Rape  of  the  Lock,  5,  102;  Dun- 
ciad,  4,  308;  Moral  Essays,  4,  11 1  ;  Windsor  Forest,  —  on  Lord  Surrey,  "In  the 
same  shades  the  Cupids  tuned  his  lyre  To  the  same  notes  of  love  and  soft  desire." 

Poems.  Chaucer,  The  Cuckow  and  Nightingale,  or  Boke  of  Cupid  (?) ;  Occleve, 
The  Letter  of  Cupid  ;  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  Cupid's  Revenge,  and  the  Masque, 
A  Wife  for  a  Month ;  J.  G.  Saxe,  Death  and  Cupid,  on  their  exchange  of  arrows, 
"  And  that  explains  the  reason  why  Despite  the  gods  above.  The  young  are  often 
doomed  to  die.  The  old  to  fall  in  love  " ;  Thomas  Ashe,  The  Lost  Eros  ;  Coventry 
Patmore,  The  Unknown  Eros.    Also  John  Lyly's  Campaspe : 

Cupid  and  my  Campaspe  playd, 

At  cardes  for  kisses,  Cupid  payd  ; 

He  stakes  his  quiver,  bow,  and  arrows, 

His  mother's  doves,  and  teeme  of  sparows ; 

Looses  them  too  ;  then,  downe  he  throwes 

The  corrall  of  his  lippe,  the  rose 

Growing  on 's  cheek  (but  none  knows  how), 

With  these,  the  cristall  of  his  brow, 

And  then  the  dimple  of  his  chinne  : 

All  these  did  my  Campaspe  winne. 

At  last  hee  set  her  both  his  eyes  ; 

Shee  won,  and  Cupid  blind  did  rise. 

O  love  !  has  shee  done  this  to  thee  ? 

What  shall  (alas  !)  become  of  mee  ? 

See  also  Lang's  translation  of  Moschus,  Idyl  I,  and  O.  Wilde,  The  Garden  of  Eros. 

In  Art.  Antique  sculpture  :  the  Eros  in  Naples,  ancient  marble  from  an  original 
perhaps  by  Praxiteles  (text.  Fig.  21);  Eros  bending  the  Bow,  in  the  Museum  at 
Berlin ;  Cupid  bending  his  Bow  (Vatican) ;  I'>os  with  his  Bow,  in  the  Capitoline 
(text,  opp.  p.  136). 

Modern  sculpture :  Thorwaldsen's  Mars  and  Cupid.  Modern  paintings : 
Bouguereau's  Cupid  and  a  Butterfly ;  Raphael's  Cupids  (among  drawings  in  the 
Museum  at  Venice) ;  Burne-Jones'  Cupid  (in  series  with  Pyramus  and  Thisbe) ; 
Raphael  Mengs'  Cupid  sharpening  his  Arrow  ;  Guido  Reni's  Cupid  ;  Van  Dyck's 
Sleeping  Cupid.    See  also  under  Fsvi/if,  C.  101. 

Hymen.  See  Sir  Theodore  Martin's  translations  of  the  Collis  O  //eliconii,  and 
the  Vesper  adest,  jiivenes,  of  Catullus  (LXI  and  LXII);  Milton,  Paradise  Lost, 
II,  591  ;  L'Allegro,  125;  Pope,  Chorus  of  Youths  and  Virgins. 

(2)  Hebe.  Thomas  Lodge's  Sonnet  to  Phyllis,  "  Fair  art  thou,  Phyllis,  ay,  so 
fair,  sweet  maid";   Milton,  Vacation  Exercise,  38;    Comus,  290;   L'Allegro,  29; 


COMMENTARY  48 1 

Spenser,  Epithalamion.  Poems:  T.  Moore,  The  Fall  of  Hebe  ;  J.  R.  Lowell,  Hebe. 
In  Art :   Ary  Scheffer's  painting  of  Hebe;  N.  Schiavoni's  painting. 

Ganymede.  Chaucer,  Hous  of  Fame,  81  ;  Tennyson,  in  the  Palace  of  An,  "  Or 
else  flushed  Ganymede,  his  rosy  thigh  Half-buried  in  the  Eagle's  down,"  etc. ; 
Shelley  in  the  Prometheus  (Jove's  order  to  Ganymede) ;  Milton.  Paradise  Regained, 
-'353;  Drayton,  Song4,"  The  birds  of  Ganymed."  Poems:  [>ord  I.ytton,  (ianymede; 
Bowring,  Goethe's  Ganymede;  Roden  Noel,  Ganymede;  Kdith  M.  Thomas, 
Homesickness  of  Ganymede ;  S.  Margaret  Fuller,  Ganymede  to  his  Kagle ; 
Urummond  on  Ganymede's  lament,  "  When  eagle's  talons  bare  him  through  the 
air."  In  Art:  The  Rape  of  Ganymede,  marble  in  the  Vatican,  probably  from  the 
original  in  bronze  by  Leochares  (text.  Fig.  22).  Graeco-Roman  sculpture:  Gany- 
mede and  the  Eagle  (National  Museum,  Naples).  Modern  sculpture  :  Thorwald- 
sen's  Ganymede. 

(3)  The  Graces.  Rogers,  Inscription  for  a  Temple  ;  Matthew  Arnold,  Ku- 
phrosyne.  These  goddesses  are  continually  referred  to  in  poetry.  Note  the 
painting  by  J.  B.  Regnault  (Louvre),  also  the  sculpture  by  Canova. 

(4)  The  Muses.  Spenser,  The  Tears  of  the  Muses;  Milton,  II  Penseroso;  Byron, 
Childe  Harold,  i.  i,  62,  88;  Thomson,  Castle  of  Indolence,  2,  2 ;  2,  8 ;  Akenside, 
Pleasures  of  Imagination,  3.  280,  327  ;  Ode  on  Lyric  Poetry ;  Crabbe,  The  Village, 
Bk.  I  ;  Introductions  to  the  Parish  Register,  Newspaper,  Birth  of  Flattery;  M. 
Arnold,  Urania.  Delphi,  Parnassus,  etc. :  Gray,  Progress  of  Poesy,  2,  3.  Vale  of 
Tempe:  Keats,  On  a  Grecian  Urn  ;  Young,  Ocean,  an  ode.  In  Art.  Sculpture  :  Poly- 
hymnia, ancient  marble  in  Berlin  (text.  Fig.  23) ;  Clio  and  Calliope,  in  the  Vatican 
in  Rome  ;  Euterpe,  Melpomene,  Polyhymnia,  and  Urania,  in  the  Louvre,  Paris ; 
Terpsichore  by  Thorwaldsen.  Painting:  Apollo  and  the  Muses,  by  Raphael  Mengs 
and  by  Giulio  Romano;  Terpsichore  (picture),  by  Schiitzenberger. 

(5)  The  Hours,  in  art :  Raphael's  Six  Hours  of  the  Day  and  Night. 

(6)  The  Fates.  Refrain  stanzas  in  Lowell's  Villa  Franca,  "  Spin,  spin,  Clotho, 
spin!  Lachesis,  twist !  and  Atropos,  sever !  "  In  Art:  The  Fates,  painting  attributed 
to  Michelangelo,  but  now  by  some  to  Rosso  Fiorentino  from  Michelangelo's 
design  (text,  Fig.  24,  Pitti  Gallery,  Florence) ;  painting  by  Paul  Thumann. 

(7)  Nemesis.    For  genealogy  see  Table  B,  C.  49. 

(8)  .ffisculapius.    Spenser,  Faerie  Queene.  i,  5,  36-43  ;  Milton,  Paradise  Lost, 

9.  507- 

(9)  (10)  The  Winds,  Helios,  Aurora,  Hesper,  tic.  ^olus  :  Chaucer,  Hous  of 
Fame,  480.  See  C.  125  and  genealogical  tables  II  and  1.  Hippotadesis  .Eolus(son  of 
Hippotes).  In  Lycidas,  96,  Milton  calls  the  king  of  the  winds  Hippotades,  because, 
following  Homer  (Odyssey,  10,2)  and  Ovid  (Metam.  14,224),  he  identifies  /EolusII 
with  ^tolus  III.    Boreas  and  Orithyia  :  Akenside,  Pleasures  of  Imagination,  i,  722. 

In  Art.  The  fragment,  Helios  rising  from  the  Sea,  by  Phidias,  south  end,  east 
pediment  of  the  Parthenon.  Boreas  and  Zetos,  Greek  reliefs  (text,  Figs.  25  and 
26);  Boreas  and  Orithyia  (text.  Fig.  27),  on  a  vase  in  Munich. 

(11)  Hesperus.  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  4, 605;  9,49;  Comus,9S2;  Akenside,  Ode 
to  Hesper;  Campbell,  Two  Songs  to  the  Evening  Star.  Tennyson,  The  Hesperides. 


482  Till*:  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

(12)  "  Iris  there  with  humid  bow  waters  the  odorous  banks,"  etc.,  Comus,  992. 
See  also  Milton's  Paradise  Lost,  4,  698;  11,  244.  In  Art:  Fig.  28,  text;  and 
painting  by  Guy  Head  (Gallery,  St.  Luke's,  Rome).  She  is  the  swift-footed,  wind- 
footed,  fleet,  the  Iris  of  the  golden  wings,  etc. 

39.  Hyperborean.  Beyond  the  North.  Concerning  the  Elysian  Plain,  see  46. 
Illustrative :  Milton,  Comus,  "  Now  the  gilded  car  of  day,"  etc. 

40.  Ceres.  Illustrative.  Pope,  Moral  Essays,  4,  176,  "  Another  age  shall  see  the 
golden  ear  Imbrown  the  slope  .  .  .  And  laughing  Ceres  reassume  the  land";  Spring, 
66  ;  Summer,  66 ;  Windsor  Forest,  39  ;  Gray,  Progress  of  Poesy  ;  Warton,  First  of 
April,  "  P'ancy  .  .  .  Sees  Ceres  grasp  her  crown  of  corn.  And  Plenty  load  her  ample 
horn";  Spenser,  Faerie  Queene,  3,  i,  51  ;  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  4,  268  ;  9,  395. 

Poems.  Tennyson,  Demeter  and  Persephone ;  Mrs.  H.  H.  Jackson,  Demeter. 
Prose:  W.  H.  Pater,  The  Myth  of  Demeter  [Fortn.  Rev.  Vol.  25,  1876) ;  S.  Colvin, 
A  Greek  Hymn  (Comh.  Mag.  Vol.  33,  1876);  Swinburne,  At  Eleusis. 

The  name  Ceres  is  from  the  stem  cer,  Sanskrit  kri,  "  to  make.'  By  metonomy 
the  word  comes  to  signify  com  in  the  Latin.  Demeter  (Vrj  fn^Tijp,  da  tiarrfp) 
means  Mother  EaHh.  The  goddess  is  represented  in  art  crowned  with  a  wheat- 
measure  (or  modius),  and  bearing  a  horn  of  plenty  filled  with  ears  of  corn. 
Demeter  (?)  appears  in  the  group  of  deities  on  the  eastern  frieze  of  the  Parthe- 
non. Also  noteworthy  are  the  Demeter  from  Knidos  (text.  Fig.  29,  from  the  marble 
in  the  British  Museum) ;  two  statues  of  Ceres  in  the  Vatican  at  Rome,  and  one  in 
the  Glyptothek  at  Munich ;  and  the  Roman  wall  painting  (text.  Fig.  30). 

4L  Rhea  was  worshiped  as  Cybele,  the  Great  Mother,  in  Phrygia  and  at 
Pessinus  in  Galatia.  During  the  Second  Punic  War,  203  B.C.,  her  image  was 
brought  from  the  latter  place  to  Rome.  In  191  k.c.  the  Megalensian  Games 
were  first  celebrated  in  her  honor,  occupying  six  days,  from  the  fourth  of  April 
on.  Plays  were  acted  during  this  festival.  The  Great  Mother  was  also  called 
Cybebe.  Berecyntia,  and  Dindymene. 

The  Cybele  of  Art.  In  works  of  art,  Cybele  exhibits  the  matronly  air  which  dis- 
tinguishes Juno  and  Ceres.  Sometimes  she  is  veiled,  and  seated  on  a  throne  with 
lions  at  her  side  ;  at  other  times  she  rides  in  a  chariot  drawn  by  lions.  She  wears  a 
mural  crown,  that  is,  a  crown  whose  rim  is  carved  in  the  form  of  towers  and  bat- 
tlements.   Rhea  is  mentioned  by  Homer  (Iliad,  15,  187)  as  the  consort  of  Cronus. 

Illustrative.  Byron's  figure  likening  Venice  to  Cybele,  Childe  Harold,  4,  2, 
"  She  looks  a  sea-Cybele,  fresh  from  ocean,"  etc.    Also  Milton's  Arcades,  21. 

42.  Interpretative.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Homer  (Iliad  and  Odyssey) 
recognizes  Dionysus  neither  as  inventor,  nor  as  exclusive  god  of  wine.  In  Iliad, 
6,  130  he  refers,  however,  to  the  Dionysus  cult  in  Thrace.  Hesiod  is  the  first  to 
call  wine  the  gift  of  Dionysus.  Dionysus  means  the  Zeus  or  god  of  Nysa,  an 
imaginary  vale  of  Thrace,  Boeotia,  or  elsewhere,  in  which  the  deity  spent  his 
youth.  The  name  Bacchus  owes  its  origin  to  the  enthusiasm  with  which  the 
followers  of  the  god  lifted  up  their  voices  in  his  praise.  Similar  names  are  lacchus, 
Bromius,  Evius  (from  the  cry  evoe).  The  god  was  also  called  Lyaeus,  the  loosener 
of  care,  T>iber,  the  liberator.    His  followers  are  also  known  as  Edonides  (from 


COMMENTARY'  4^3 

Mount  Edon,  in  Thrace,  where  he  was  worshiped),  Thyiades,  the  sacrificers, 
Lenae  and  Bassarides.  His  festivals  were  the  Lesser  and  Greater  Dionysia  (at 
Athens),  the  Lenaea.  and  the  Anthesteria,  in  December.  March,  January,  and 
February,  respectively.    At  the  first,  three  dramatic  performances  were  presented. 

Illustrative.  A  few  references  and  allusions  worth  consulting :  Spenser, 
Epithalamion ;  Fletcher,  Valentinian,  "God  Lyaeus,  ever  young";  Randolph, 
To  Master  Anthony  Stafford  (1632);  Milton,  L'Allegro,  16;  Paradise  Lost,  4, 
279 ;  7,  33 ;  Comus,  46,  522 ;  Shakespeare,  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  V,  i ; 
Love's  Labour 's  Lost,  IV,  iii ;  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  II,  vii,  song;  Shelley,  Ode  to 
Liberty,  7,  Rome  —  "like  a  Cadmaean  Maenad";  Keats,  To  a  Nightingale,  "Not 
charioted  by  Bacchus  and  his  pards."  On  Semele,  Milton,  Paradise  Regained,  2, 
187  ;  Spenser,  Faerie  Queene,  3,  1 1,  33. 

Poems.  Ben  Jonson,  Dedication  of  the  King's  New  Cellar;  Thomas  Parnell, 
Bacchus,  or  the  Drunken  Metamorphosis  ;  Landor,  Sophron's  Hymn  to  Bacchus  ; 
Swinburne,  Prelude  to  Songs  before  Sunrise ;  Roden  Noel,  The  Triumph  of 
Bacchus  ;  Robert  Bridges,  The  Feast  of  Bacchus  ;  others  given  in  text.   See  Index. 

In  Art.  Of  ancient  representations  of  the  Bacchus,  the  best  examples  are  the 
marble  in  the  British  Museum  (text,  Fig.  31);  the  Silenus  holding  the  child 
Bacchus  (in  the  Louvre)  ;  the  head  of  Dionysus  found  in  Smyrna  (now  in  Leyden 
—  see  text.  Fig.  143),  from  an  original  of  the  school  of  Scopas ;  the  head  (now 
in  London)  from  the  Baths  of  Caracalla,  of  the  later  Attic  school ;  the  Faun  and 
Bacchus  (Museum,  Naples) ;  a  standing  bronze  figure  in  Vienna,  and  the  statue 
of  the  Villa  Tiburtina  (Rome).  The  bearded  or  Indian  Bacchus  is  represented 
as  advanced  in  years,  grave,  dignified,  crowned  with  a  diadem  and  robed  to  the 
feet.    See  also  Figs.  82-87,  in  text. 

In  modern  sculpture  note  especially  the  Drunken  Bacchus  of  Michelangelo. 
Among  modern  paintings  worthy  of  notice  are  Bouguereau's  Youth  of  Bacchus, 
and  C.  Gleyre's  Dance  of  the  Bacchantes.    See  also  under  Ariadne. 

43.  The  invention  of  the  syrinx  is  attributed  also  to  Mercury.  For  poetical 
illustrations  of  Pan  see  C.  129-138.    So  also  for  Nymphs  and  Satyrs. 

In  Art.  Pan  the  Hunter  (text,  Fig.  32) ;  the  antique,  Pan  and  Daphnis  (with  the 
syrinx)  in  the  Museum  at  Naples.    See  references  above. 

44-46.  Itwas  only  in  rare  instances  that  mortals  returned  from  Hades.  See  the 
stories  of  Hercules,  Orpheus,  Ulysses,  ^neas.  On  the  tortures  of  the  condemned 
and  the  happiness  of  the  blessed,  see  254-257  in  The  Adventures  of  ^Eneas. 

Illustrative.    Lowell,  addressing  the  Past,  says : 

Whatever  of  true  life  there  was  in  thee 

Leaps  in  our  age's  veins  ;    .  .  . 
Here,  'mid  the  bleak  waves  of  our  strife  and  care 

Float  the  green  Fortunate  Isles 
Where  all  thy  hero-spirits  dwell,  and  share 

Our  martyrdom  and  toils  ; 
The  present  moves  attended 

With  all  of  brave  and  excellent  and  fair 
That  made  the  old  time  splendid. 


484  TllK  Ci.ASSIC   MV  THS 

Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  3,  568,  "l,ike  those  Hesperian  gardens,"  etc.  Sec  also  the 
same,  2,  577  ff..  —  "Abhorred  Styx,  the  flood  of  deadly  hate,"  —  where  the  rivers 
of  F.rebus  are  characterized  according  to  the  meaning  of  their  Greek  names;  and 
I -'Allegro,  3.  Charon:  Pope,  Dunciad,  3,  19;  R.  C.  Rogers,  Charon.  Elysium: 
Cowper,  Progress  of  Error,  Night,  "  The  balm  of  care,  Elysium  of  the  mind  " ; 
Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  3,  472;  Comus,  257;  L'Allegro  ;  Shakespeare,  3  Henry  VL 
L  ii ;  Cymbeline,  V,  iv  ;  Twelfth  Night,  I,  ii ;  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona,  II,  vii; 
Shelley,  To  Naples.  Lethe:  Shakespeare,  Twelfth  Night,  IV,  i;  Julius  Csesar, 
HI,  i;  Hamlet,  I,  v  ;  2  Henry  IV,  V,  ii ;  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  2,  583.  Tartarus: 
Milton.  Paradise  Lost,  2,  858;  6,  54. 

47.  Interpretative.  The  name  Hades  means  "  the  invisible,"  or  "  he  who  makes 
invisible."  'I'he  meaning  of  Pluto  {Plouton),  according  to  Plato  (Cratylus),  is 
7cealth,  —  the  giver  of  treasure  which  lies  underground.  Pluto  carries  the  cornu- 
copia, symbol  of  inexhaustible  riches  ;  but  careful  discrimination  must  be  observed 
between  him  and  Plutus  (Plouios),  who  is  merely  an  allegorical  figure,  —  a  per- 
sonification of  wealth  and  nothing  more.  Hades  is  called  also  the  Illustrious,  the 
Many-named,  the  Benignant,  Polydectcs  or  the  Hospitable. 

Illustrative.  Milton,  L'Allegro,  and  II  Penseroso;  Paradise  Lost,  4,  270;  Thomas 
Kyd,  Spanish  Tragedy  (Andrea's  descent  to  Hades  ;  —  this  poem  deals  extensively 
with  the  Infernal  Regions) ;  Shakespeare,  2  Henry  IV,  II,  iv ;  Troilus  and  Cres- 
sida,  IV,  iv;  V,  ii;  Coriolanus,  I,  iv;  Titus  Andronicus,  IV,  iii. 

Poems.    Buchanan,  Ades,  King  of  Hell ;  Lewis  Morris,  Epic  of  Hades. 

48.  Proserpina.  Not  from  the  Latin ^ro-ser/o,  'to  creep  forth'  (used  of  herbs 
in  spring),  but  from  the  Greek  form  Persephone,  bringer  of  death.  The  later  name 
Pherephatta  refers  to  the  doves  [phatta),  which  were  sacred  to  her  as  well  as  to 
Aphrodite.  She  carries  ears  of  corn  as  symbol  of  vegetation,  poppies  as  symbol 
of  the  sleep  of  death,  the  pomegranate  as  the  fruit  of  the  underworld  of  which 
none  might  partake  and  return  to  the  light  of  heaven.  Among  the  Romans 
her  worship  was  overshadowed  by  that  of  Libitina,  a  native  deity  of  the 
underworld. 

Illustrative.  Keats,  Melancholy,  i;  Spenser,  Faerie  Queene,  i,  2,  2;  Milton. 
Paradise  I^ost,  4,  269;  9,  396. 

Poems.  Aubrey  De  Vere,  The  Search  after  Proserpine ;  Jean  Ingelow,  Perse- 
phone ;  Swinburne,  Hymns  to  Proserpine ;  L.  Morris,  Persephone  (Epic  of  Hades) ; 
!).  (;.  Rossetti,  Proserpina.    (Also  in  crayons,  in  water  colors,  and  in  oil.) 

In  Art.  Sculpture  :  Eastern  pediment  of  Parthenon  frieze.  Painting  :  Lorenzo 
Bernini's  Pluto  and  Proserpine;  P.  Schobelt's  Abduction  of  Proserpine. 

49.  Textual.  ( i )  For  .-Eacus,  son  of  .^Egina,  see  61  and  C.  190,  Table  O ;  for 
Minos  and  Rhadamanthus,  see  59,  Eumenides  :  euphemistic  term,  meaning  the 
well-intentioned.  Hecate  was  descended  through  her  father  Perses  from  the 
Titans,  Creiis  and  Eurybie  ;  through  her  mother  Asteria  from  the  Titans,  Coeus  and 
Phoebe.    She  was  therefore,  on  both  sides,  the  granddaughter  of  Uranus  and  Gsea. 

The  following  table  is  based  upon  Hesiod's  account  of  The  Family  of  Night. 
(Theogony.) 


COMMEN  1  AR\ 

According  to  other  theogonies,  the  Fates  were  daughters 
of  Jove  and  Themis,  and  the  Hesperides  daughters  of 
Atlas.  The  story  of  the  true  and  false  Dreams  and  the  horn 
and  ivory  gates  (Odyssey,  19,  560)  rests  on  a  double  phiy 
upon  words:  (i)  iXecpas  {elephas),  'ivory,'  and  iXe(paipofxaL 
[elephairomai),  'to  cheat  with  false  hope' ;  (2)  /c^pos  {keras), 
horn,  and  Kpa.ivuv  [krainein),  '  to  fulfill.'  See  Mortimer 
Collins,  The  Ivory  Gate,  a  poem. 

Illustrative.  Hades :  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  2,  964 ;  L. 
Morris,  Epic  of  Hades.  Styx :  Shakespeare,  Troilus  and 
Cressida,  V,  iv ;  Titus  Andronicus,  I,  ii ;  Milton,  Paradise 
Lost,  2,  577;  Pope,  Dunciad,  2,  338.  Erebus  :  Shakespeare, 
Merchant  of  'Venice,  V,  i ;  2  Henrj'  IV,  II,  iv ;  Julius  Caesar, 
II,  i.  Cerberus:  Spenser,  Faerie  Queene,  i,  11,41  ;  Shake- 
speare, Love's  Labour's  Lost,  V,  ii ;  2  Henry  IV,  II,  iv ; 
Troilus  and  Cressida,  II,  i;  Titus  Andronicus,  II,  v;  Max- 
well, Tom  May's  Death ;  Milton,  L'AUegro,  2.  Furies : 
Milton,  Lycidas ;  Paradise  Lost,  2.  597,  671;  6,  859;  10, 
620;  Paradise  Regained,  9,  422;  Comus,  641;  Dryden, 
Alexander's  Feast,  6;  Shakespeare,  Midsummer  Night's 
Dream,  V,  i;  Richard  III,  I,  iv ;  2  Henry  IV,  V,  iii. 
Hecate  :  Shakespeare,  Macbeth,  IV,  i.  Sleep  and  Death  : 
Shelley,  To  Night;  H.  K.  White,  Thanatos. 

In  Art.  Vase-painting  of  Canusium  of  the  Underworld 
(text,  Fig.  34) ;  painting  of  a  Fury  by  Michelangelo  (Ufifizi, 
Florence) ;  also  Figs.  35-39  in  text. 

50-52.  See  next  page  for  Genealogical  Table,  Divini- 
ties of  the  Sea. 

For  stories  of  the  Grasae,  Gorgons,  Scylla,  Sirens, 
Pleiades,  etc.,  consult  Index. 

Illustrative.  Oceanus  :  Milton,  Comus,  868.  Neptune  : 
Spenser,  Faerie  Queene,  i,  1 1,  54  ;  Shakespeare,  Tempest, 

1,  ii ;  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  II,  ii;  Macbeth,  II,  ii ; 
Cymbeline,  III,  i ;  Hamlet,  I,  i ;  Milton,  Lycidas;  Paradise 
Regained,  i,  190 ;  Paradise  Lost,  9,  18  ;  Comus,  869  ;  Prior, 
Ode  on  Taking  of  Namur ;  Waller's  Panegyric  to  the  Lord 
Protector.   Panope  :  Milton,  Lycidas,  99. 

Harpies.  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  3,  403.  Sirens :  Wm. 
Morris,  Life  and  Death  of  Jason  —  Song  of  the  Sirens. 
Scylla  and  Charybdis  (see  Index) :  Milton,  Paradise  Lost, 

2,  660  ;  Arcades,  63  ;  Comus,  257  ;  Pope,  Rape  of  the  Lock, 

3,  122.  Sirens:  Rossetti,  A  Sea-Spell;  A.  Lang,  "They 
hear  the  Sirens  for  the  second  time." 

Naiads.  Landor.To  Joseph  Ablett;  Shelley,  To  Liberty, 


485 


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I'HK  CLASSIC   MYTHS 


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8;  Spenser,  Prothalamion,  19;  Milton,  Lycidas;  Para 
disc  Regained,  2,  355  ;  Comus,  254  ;  Buchanan,  Naiad 
(see  134);  Drummond  of  Hawthornden,  "Nympbs, 
sister  nymphs,  which  haunt  this  crystal  brook,  And 
happy  in  these  floating  bowers  abide,"  etc. ;  Pope, 
Summer,  7  ;  Armstrong,  Art  of  Preserving  Health, 
"  Come,  ye  Naiads!  to  the  fountains  lead." 

Proteus.  Shakespeare,  Two  Oentlemen  of  Verona, 
I,  i;  II,  ii;  III,  ii ;  IV,  iv ;  Pope,  Dunciad,  i,  37;  2, 
109.  The  Water  Deities  are  presented  in  a  masque  con- 
tained in  Beaumont  and  Fletcher's  Maid's  Tragedy. 

In  Art.  Poseidon :  see  text,  Figs.  40  and  41 
(originals  in  the  British  Museum  and  the  Glyptothek, 
Munich)  ;  also  the  Isthmian  Poseidon,  Fig.  95. 
The  Atlas  (Graeco-Roman  sculpture)  in  National 
Museum,  Naples ;  the  Triton  in  Vatican  (text.  Fig. 
42).  Modern  painting:  J.  Van  Beers,  The- Siren; 
1).  G.  Rossetti,  The  Siren. 

Textual.  Consus,  from  ctJWi/^r^,' to  stowaway.'  The 
sisters  of  Carmenta,  the  forward-looking  Antevorta 
and  the  backward-looking  Postvorta,  were  originally 
but  different  aspects  of  the  function  of  the  Muse. 

54.  Illustrative.  Saturn :  Milton,  II  Penseroso ; 
Keats,  Hyperion ;  Peele,  Arraignment  of  Paris. 
Janus,  as  god  of  civilization :  Dryden,  Epistle  to 
Congreve,  7.  Fauns  :  Milton,  Lycidas  ;  R.  C.  Rogers, 
The  Dancing  Faun.  See  Hawthorne's  Marble  Faun. 
Bellona :  Shakespeare,  Macbeth,  "  Bellona's  bride- 
groom, lapp'd  in  proof";  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  2,922. 
Pomona :  Randolph,  To  Master  x\nthony  Stafford  ; 
Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  9,  393 ;  5,  378 ;  Thomson, 
Seasons,  Summer,  663.  Flora :  Milton,  Paradise  Lost, 
5,  16;  Spenser,  Faerie  Queene,  i,  4,  17  ;  R.  H.  Stod- 
dard, Arcadian  Hymn  to  Flora ;  Pope,  Windsor  Forest, 
38.  Janus  :  Jonathan  Swift,  To  Janus,  on  New  Year's 
Day,  1726;  Egeria,  one  of  the  Camenae;  Childe 
Harold,  4,  1 1 5-1 20  ;  Tennyson,  Palace  of  Art,  "  Hold- 
ing one  hand  against  his  ear,"  etc.  Pan,  etc. :  Milton, 
Paradise  Lost,  4,  707 ;  4,  329. 

In  Sculpture.  The  Satyr,  or  so-called  Faun,  of 
Praxiteles  in  the  Vatican  (text,  Fig.  106) ;  Dancing 
Faun  (Lateran,  Rome) ;  Dancing  Faun,  Drunken  Faun, 
Sleeping  Faun,  and  Faun  and  Bacchus  (National 
Museum,  Naples) ;  The  Barberini  Faun,  or  Sleeping 
Satyr  (Glyptothek,  Munich). 


COMMENTARY  487 

Flora.    Painting  by  Titian  (Uffizi,  Florence). 

55.  The  first  love  of  Zeus  was  Metis,  daughter  of  Oceanus  and  Tethys.  She  is 
Prudence  or  Foreknowledge.  She  warned  Zeus  that  if  she  bore  him  a  child,  it 
would  be  greater  than  he.  Whereupon  Zeus  swallowed  her  ;  and,  in  time,  from  his 
head  sprang  Athene,  "  the  virgin  of  the  azure  eyes,  Equal  in  strength,  and  as  her 
father  wise"  (Hesiod.  Theog.).    On  Latona,  see  32,  73,  and  Commentary. 

56.  For  Danae  see  151 ;  for  Alcmene,  156 ;  for  Leda.  194. 

57.  In  the  following  general  table  of  the  Race  of  Inachus  (see  p.  488),  marriages 
are  indicated  in  the  usual  manner  (by  the  sign  =,  or  by  parentheses) ;  the  more 
important  characters  mentioned  in  this  work  are  printed  in  heavy-faced  type. 
While  numerous  less  important  branches,  families,  and  mythical  individuals  have 
been  intentionally  omitted,  it  is  hoped  that  this  reduction  of  various  relationships, 
elsewhere  explained  or  tabulated,  to  a  general  scheme,  may  furnish  the  reader 
with  a  clearer  conception  of  the  family  ties  that  motivate  many  of  the  incidents 
of  mythical  adventure,  and  that  must  have  been  commonplaces  of  information  to 
those  who  invented  and  perpetuated  these  stories.  It  should  be  borne  in  mind 
that  the  traditions  concerning  relationships  are  by  no  means  consistent,  and  that 
consequently  the  collation  of  mythical  genealogies  demands  the  continual  exercise 
of  discretion,  and  a  balancing  of  probabilities.  Notice  that  from  the  union  of  Jupi- 
ter and  lo  (Table  D),  Hercules  is  descended  in  the  thirteenth  generation. 

Inachus  is  the  principal  river  of  Argolis  in  the  Peloponnesus. 

Interpretative.  To  is  explained  as  the  horned  moon,  in  its  various  changes  ami 
wanderings.  Argus  is  the  heaven  with  its  myriad  stars,  some  of  them  shut,  some 
blinking,  some  always  agleam.  The  wand  of  Hermes  and  his  music  may  be  the 
morning  breeze,  at  the  coming  of  which  the  eyes  of  heaven  close  (Cox,  2,  1 38  ; 
Preller  2,  40).  The  explanation  would,  however,  be  just  as  probable  if  Mercurv 
(Hermes)  were  a  cloud-driving  wind.  Pan  and  the  Syrinx:  naturally  the  wind 
playing  through  the  reeds,  if  (with  Miiller  and  Cox)  we  take  Pan  to  be  the  all- 
purifying,  but  yet  gentle,  wind.    But  see  p.  181. 

Illustrative.  Shelley,  To  the  Moon,  "  Art  thou  pale  for  weariness  Of  ciiml)- 
ing  heaven  and  gazing  on  the  earth.  Wandering  companioitless  Among  the 
stars  that  have  a  different  birth  ? "  Milton's  "  To  behold  the  wandering  moon, 
Riding  near  her  highest  noon,  Like  one  that  had  been  led  astray.  Through  the 
heaven's  wide  pathless  way  "  (II  Penseroso).  See  also  for  lo,  Shelley's  Prometheus 
Bound.    Argus:   Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  11,  131  ;  Pope,  Dunciad,  2,  374;  4,  637. 

In  Art.  Fig.  47  in  the  text,  from  a  wall-painting  of  Ilerculan^um  (Museum, 
Naples).    Correggio's  painting,  Jupiter  and  lo  ;  not  a  pleasant  conception. 

58.  Interpretative.  The  myth  of  Callisto  and  Areas  is  of  Arcadian  origin.  If 
the  Arcadians,  in  very  remote  times,  traced  their  descent  from  a  she-bear,  and  if 
they  also,  like  other  races,  recognized  a  bear  in  a  certain  constellation,  they 
might  naturally  mix  the  fables  and  combine  them  later  with  the  legend  of  the  all- 
powerful  Zeus  (Lang,  2,  181).  According  to  another  account,  Callisto  was  punished 
for  her  love  of  Jupiter  by  Diana  (Artemis).  Her  name  has  been  identified  with 
the  adjective  Calliste,  '  most  fair,'  which  was  certainly  applied  to  Artemis  herself. 
That  Artemis  was  protectress  of  she-bears  is  known ;  also  that,  in  Attica,  she  was 


488 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


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COMMENIARY  489 

served  by  girls  who  imitated,  while  dancing,  the  gait  of  bears.  It  is  quite  possible, 
therefore,  that  Artemis  inherited  a  more  ancient  worship  of  the  bear  that  may 
have  been  the  totem,  or  sacred  animal,  from  which  the  Arcadians  traced  a  mytho 
logical  descent.  Others  hold  that  the  word  arksha,  '  a  star,'  became  confused  with 
the  Greek  arktos,  'a  bear.'  So  the  myth  of  the  son  Areas  (the  star  and  the  bear) 
may  have  arisen  (Max  Miiller).  The  last  star  in  the  tail  of  the  Little  Bear  is  the 
Polestar,  or  Cynosure  (dog's  tail). 

Illustrative.  Milton's  "  Let  my  lamp,  at  midnight  hour,  lie  seen  in  some  high 
lonely  tower.  Where  I  may  oitoutwatck  the  Bear"  (II  Penseroso)  ;  and  his  "  Where 
perhaps  some  beauty  lies  The  cynosure  of  neighbouring  eyes"  (L'Allegro) ; 
also  his  "  And  thou  shalt  be  our  star  of  Arcady,  Or  Tyrian  Cynosure  "  (Comus). 
Note  Lowell's  "  The  Bear,  that  prowled  all  night  about  the  fold  Of  the  North-star, 
hath  shrunk  into  his  den  "  (Prometheus).  See  also  the  song  beginning,  "  Hear  ye, 
ladies,  that  despise  What  the  mighty  Love  had  done,"  in  Beaumont  and  Fletcher's 
drama,  Valentinian,  —  for  Callisto,  Leda,  and  Danae. 

59.  The  Descendants  of  Agenor.    For  further  details,  see  Table  D. 


Mars  =  Venus 


Table  E 

Agenor 

I 


Harmonia  =  Cadmus  Europa  =  Jupiter 


\  \ 

Rhadamanthus  Sarpedon 


Semele  =  Jupiter  Ino=:Athamas  Autonoe  =  Aristaeus  Agave  Polydorus 

II  III 

Bacchus  Melicertes  Actason  Pentheus  Labdacus 

I 

Laius 

I 

Qidipus 

(royal  family  of  Thebes) 

Textual.  Moschus  lived  about  the  close  of  the  third  century  B.C.  in  Syracuse. 
He  was  a  grammarian  and  an  idyllic  poet.  He  calls  himself  a  pupil  of  Bion, — 
whose  Lament  for  Adonis  is  given  in  100.  Both  Bion  and  Moschus  belong  to  the 
.School  of  Theocritus  —  the  Idyllic  or  Pastoral  School  of  Poetry.  Cypris  :  Venus, 
by  whom  the  island  of  Cyprus  was  beloved.  Mygdonian  flutes :  the  ancients  had 
three  species  or  modes  of  music,  depending,  rcspcctivelv,  upon  the  succession 
of  musical  intervals  which  was  adopted  as  the  basis  of  the  system.  The  Lydian 
measures  were  shrill  and  lively ;  the  Dorian  deep  in  tone,  grave,  and  solemn ;  the 
Mygdonian,  or  Phrygian,  were  supposed  by  some  to  have  been  the  same  as  the 
Lydian,  but  more  probably  they  were  a  combination  of  Lydian  and  Dorian. 
Shaker  of  the  World  :  Neptune.  Crete :  where  Jupiter  had  been  concealed  from 
his  father  Cronus,  and  nourished  by  the  goat  Amalthea. 

Interpretative.  Herodotus  says  that  Europa  was  a  historical  princess  of  Tyre, 
carried  off  by  Hellenes  to  Crete.  Taurus  (the  bull)  was  euhemeristically  conceived 
to  be  a  king  of  Crete  who  carried  off  the  Tyrian  princess  as  prize  of  war.    Others 


490  THK  CLASSIC   MYTHS 

said  that  probably  the  figurehead  of  the  ship  in  which  Europa  was  conveyed  to 
Crete  was  a  bull.  It  is  not  improbable  that  the  story  indicates  a  settlement  of 
Phcenicians  in  Crete  and  the  introduction  by  them  of  cattle.  Modern  critics,  such 
as  Preller  and  Welcker,  make  Europa  a  goddess  of  the  moon  —  Diana  or  Astartf, 
and  translate  her  name  ''  the  dark,  or  obscured  one."  But  she  has  undoubtedly  a 
connection  with  the  earth,  perhaps  as  wife  of  Jupiter  (the  Heaven).  H.  D.  Miiller 
connects  both  lo  and  Europa  with  the  v/andering  Demeter  (or  Ceres),  and  con- 
siders Demeter  to  be  a  goddess  both  of  the  moon  and  of  the  earth  (Helbig,  in 
Roscher).  Cox,  after  his  usual  method,  finds  here  the  Dawn  borne  across  the 
heaven  by  the  lord  of  the  pure  ether.  Europa  would  then  be  the  broad-spreading 
flush  of  dawn,  seen  first  in  the  purple  region  of  morning  (Phoenicia).  Her  brother 
Cadmus,  who  pursues  her,  would  be  the  sun  searching  for  his  lost  sister  or  bride. 
Very  fanciful,  but  inconclusive.  The  bull  occurs  not  infrequently  in  myth  as  an 
incarnation  of  deity. 

Illustrative.  \V.  S.  Landor,  Europa  and  her  Mother;  Aubrey  De  Vere,  The 
Rape  of  Europa;  E.  Dowden,  Europa;  W.W.Story,  Europa  (a  sonnet).  See  also 
a  graceful  picture  in  Tennyson's  Palace  of  Art. 

In  Art.  Fig.  48,  in  text,  from  vase  found  at  Cumae ;  the  marble  group  in  the 
Vatican,  Europa  riding  the  Bull ;  painting  by  Paolo  Veronese,  The  Rape  of 
Europa;  Europa,  by  Claude  Lorrain. 

60.  See  Tables  D  and  E. 

Interpretative.  According  to  Preller,  Semele  is  a  personification  of  the  fertile 
soil  in  spring,  which  brings  forth  the  productive  vine.  In  the  irrational  part  of 
the  myth,  Jove  takes  the  child  Dionysus  (Bacchus),  after  Semele's  death,  and  sews 
him  up  in  his  thigh  for  safe-keeping.  Preller  finds  here  "  the  wedlock  of  heaven 
and  earth,  the  first  day  that  it  thunders  in  March."  Exactly  why,  might  be  easy 
to  guess,  but  hard  to  demonstrate.  The  thigh  of  Jupiter  would  have  to  be  the  cool 
moist  clouds  brooding  over  the  youthful  vine.  The  whole  explanation  is  altogether 
too  conjectural.  See  A.  Lang's  Myth,  Ritual,  etc.,  2,  221-225,  for  a  more  plausible 
but  less  poetic  theory. 

Illustrative.  Milton,  Paradise  Regained,  2,  187 ;  Bowring's  translation  of 
Schiller's  Semele ;  E.    R.  Sill,  Semele,  of  which  a  part  is  given  in  the  text. 

In  Art.    Fig.  50,  in  text. 

61.  Textual.  The  son  of  .-Egina  and  Jove  was  yEacus  (for  genealogy,  see 
Table  O  (i )  ).  JEgina :  an  island  in  the  Saronic  Gulf,  between  Attica  and  Argolis. 
Asopus :  the  name  of  two  rivers,  one  in  Achaia,  one  in  Boeotia,  of  which  the 
latter  is  the  more  important.  The  Greek  traveler,  Pausanias,  tells  us  that  Asopus 
was  the  discoverer  of  the  river  which  bears  his  name.  Sisyphus,  see  255.  This  ■ 
description  of  the  plague  is  copied  by  Ovid  from  the  account  which  Thucydides 
gives  of  the  plague  of  Athens.  That  account,  much  fuller  than  is  here  given,  was 
drawn  from  life  and  has  been  the  source  from  which  many  subsequent  poets  and 
novelists  have  drawn  details  of  similar  scenes.  The  Myrmidons  were,  during  the 
Trojan  War,  the  soldiers  of  Achilles,  grandson  of  this  king  .-Eacus. 


COMMENTARY  49 1 

Interpretative.  The  name  ^gina  may  imply  either  the  shore  on  which  the 
waves  break  (Preller),  or  the  sacred  goat  {^getis)  which  was  the  Me»i  of 
the  yEgeus  family  of  Attica.  The  worship  of  Athene  was  introduced  into  Athens 
by  this  family.  In  sacrifices  the  goddess  was  clad  in  the  skin  of  the  sacred  goat, 
but  no  goat  might  be  sacrificed  to  her.  Probably  another  example  of  the  survival 
of  a  savage  ritual  (Lang,  Myth,  Ritual,  etc.,  i,  280). 

Illustrative.   Myrmidons : 

No,  no,  said  Rhadamant,  it  were  not  well, 

With  loving  souls  to  place  a  martialist ; 
He  died  in  war,  and  must  to  martial  fields, 

Where  wounded  Hector  lives  in  lasting  pain. 
And  Achilles'  Myrmidons  do  scour  the  plain. 

Kyd,  Spanish  Tragedy 

On  Sisyphus,  read  Lewis  Morris'  poem  in  The  Epic  of  Hades. 

62.  Textual.  Maenad:  the  Maenades,  from  yua/vo/ixat  (wrt/>/^»/a/'), 'to  rage,' were 
women  who  danced  themselves  into  a  frenzy  in  the  orgies  or  festivals  of  Bacchus. 
Cithaeron :  a  mountain  range  south  of  Thebes  and  between  Boeotia  and  Attica. 

Interpretative.  Antiope,  philologically  interpreted,  may  indicate  the  moon  with 
face  turned  full  upon  us.  That  Antiope  is  a  personification  of  some  such  natural 
phenomena  would  also  appear  from  the  significance  of  the  names  associated  with 
hers  in  the  myth  :  Nycteus,  the  night-maii ;  Lycus,  the  mati  of  light.  Amphion 
and  Zethus  are  thought,  in  like  fashion,  to  represent  manifestations  of  light ;  see 
also  Castor  and  Pollux.  Perhaps  the  method  employed  by  Zethus  and  Amphion 
in  building  Thebes  may  merely  symbolize  the  advantage  of  combining  mechanical 
force  with  well-ordered  or  harmonious  thought. 

In  Art:  The  Farnese  Bull  group  (text,  opp.  p.  74)  :  marble,  maybe  by  Tauris- 
cus  and  Tralles,  in  Naples  Museum.  Fig.  51  :  a  relief  in  the  Palazzo  Spada, 
Rome.    Modern  painting  :  Correggio's  Antiope. 

63.  Textual.  Phrygia :  a  province  in  Asia  Minor.  For  Minerva's  protection 
of  the  olive,  see  65.    Tyana  is  a  town  in  Cappadocia,  Asia  Minor. 

64.  Textual.  Argos  :  the  capital  of  Argolis  in  the  Peloponnesus.  Of  Cydippe, 
it  is  told,  in  Ovid's  Heroides  and  elsewhere,  that,  when  a  girl  sacrificing  in  the 
temple  of  Diana  in  Delos,  she  was  seen  and  loved  by  a  youth,  Acontius.  He 
threw  before  her  an  apple,  on  which  these  words  were  inscribed,  "  I  swear  by  the 
sanctuary  of  Diana  to  marry  "Acontius."  The  maiden  read  aloud  the  words  and 
threw  the  apple  away.  But  the  vow  was  registered  by  Diana,  who,  in  spite  of  many 
delays,  brought  about  the  marriage  of  Cydippe  and  her  unknown  lover.  Polyclitus 
the  Elder,  of  Argos.  lived  about  431  R.c,  and  was  a  contemporary  of  two  other 
great  sculptors,  Phidias  and  Myron.  His  greate.st  work  was  the  chryselephantine 
statue  of  Hera  for  her  temple  between  Argos  and  Mycenae. 

Illustrative.  Beside  Gosse's  Sons  of  Cydippe,  see  verses  by  L.  J.  Richard 
son,  in  The  Inlander,  Ann  Arbor,  Vol.  2,  p.  2.  For  the  story  of  Acontius  and 
Cydippe,  see  W' illiam  Morris'  Earthly  Paradise ;  and  Lytton's  Cydippe,  or  The 
Apples,  in  The  Lost  Tales  of  Miletus. 


492  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

In  Art.  The  severe  design  in  clay  by  Teignmouth,  of  which  prints  may  be 
obtained,  was  made  to  illustrate  Gosse's  poem. 

65-66.  Textual.  For  Cecrops,  see  174.  He  named  the  city  that  he  founded 
Cecropia,  —  a  name  which  afterwards  clung  to  Athens.  For  an  excellent  descrip- 
tion of  ancient  weaving,  see  Catullus,  LXIV,  304-323  (The  Peleusand  Thetis).  For 
translation,  see  191.  Leda,  mother  of  Castor,  Pollux,  Helen,  and  Clytemnestra 
(see  194  and  Commentary).   Danae,  mother  of  Perseus  (see  151). 

Interpretative.  The  waves  were  the  coursers  of  Neptune, — the  horses  with  which 
he  scours  the  strand.  Arachne :  a  princess  of  Lydia.  It  is  probable  that  the  myth 
symbolizes  the  competition  in  products  of  the  loom  between  Attica  and  Asia 
Minor  and  the  superior  handicraft  of  the  Athenian  weavers. 

Illustrative.  Arachne :  Shakespeare,  Troilus  and  Cressida,  V,  ii ;  Pope,  Dun- 
ciad,  4,  590.   Poem:   Garrick,  Upon  a  Lady's  Embroidery. 

In  Art.    Fig.  52,  in  text :  from  a  vase  in  Petrograd. 

68.  Textual.  Diomede  :  for  his  genealogy,  see  Table  K.  Taslets  :  armor  worn 
about  the  thighs.  Cyprian:  Venus.  Paean  (Paeon,  or  Paieon),  classed  by  Homer 
among  the  Olympian  gods,  of  whom  he  is,  as  his  name  implies,  the  "  healer." 
Later,  the  name  was  applied  to  ^'Esculapius,  then  to  any  god  who  might  repair 
or  avert  evil  of  any  kind,  as,  for  instance,  to  Apollo  and  to  Thanatos  (Death). 
See  Armstrong's  Art  of  Health,  "  So  Psean,  so  the  powers  of  Health  command," 
etc.,  and  "  the  wise  of  ancient  days  Adored  one  power  of  physic,  melody,  and 
song."  Paeans  were  chants  in  honor  of  Apollo,  sung  to  deprecate  misfortune  in 
battle  or  to  avert  disease.  Lower  than  the  sons  of  Heaven :  lower  than  the 
Titans,  sons  of  Uranus  (Heaven),  who  were  plunged  into  Tartarus. 

69.  Textual.  Lessing  points  out  in  his  Laocoon  the  skill  with  which  Homer, 
stating  the  size  of  the  stone  hurled  by  Minerva  and  the  measure  of  the  space 
covered  by  Mars,  suggests  the  gigantic  proportions  of  the  warring  divinities. 

70.  Textual.  Family  of  Cadmus :  see  Tables  U  and  E.  Castalian  Cave  of 
Mount  Parnassus,  Phocis  ;  here  was  the  famous  Delphic  oracle  of  Apollo.  Cephis- 
sus:  a  river  running  through  Doris,  Phocis,  and  Boeotia  into  the  Euboean  Gulf; 
the  valley  of  the  Cephissus  was  noted  for  its  fertility.  Panope :  a  town  on  the 
Cephissus.  Tyrians  :  Cadmus  and  his  followers  came  from  Tyre  in  Phoenicia. 
The  Necklace  of  Harmonia  was  a  fateful  gift.  It  brought  evil  to  whomsoever  it 
belonged :  to  all  the  descendants  of  Cadmus ;  to  Eriphyle,  wife  of  Amphiaraiis  of 
Argos,  to  whom  Polynices  gave  it;  and  to  the  sons  of  Eriphyle.  It  was  finally 
dedicated  to  Apollo  in  Delphi.  Harmonia's  robe  possessed  the  same  fatality, 
187,  189.  Enchelians :  a  people  of  Illyria.  For  the  myths  of  Semele,  see  60  ; 
of  Ino,  144;  of  Autonoe  and  her  son.  Actason,  95  ;  of  Agave  and  her  son,  Pen- 
theus,  112  ;  of  Polydorus,  the  Labdacidas,  (Edipus,  etc.,  182.  Eight  years:  the 
usual  period  of  penance.  Apollo,  alttr  slaying  the  Python,  had  t<>  clear  himself  of 
defilement  by  a  period  of  purification. 

Interpretative.  Cadmus  and  his  Tyrians :  according  to  the  usual  explanation, 
this  myth  is  based  upon  an  immigration  of  Phoenicians,  who  settled  Boeotia  and 
gave  laws,  the  rudiments  of  culture  (alphabet,  etc.),  and  industrial  arts  to  the  older 


COMMENTARY  493 

races  of  Greece.  Many  Theban  names,  such  as  Melicertes,  Cadmus,  point  to  a 
possible  Phoenician  origin ;  cf.  Semitic  Melkarth,  and  Kedem,  the  East.  But 
Preller  holds  that  two  mythical  personages,  a  Greek  Cadmus  and  a  Phoenician 
Cadmus,  have  been  confounded ;  that  the  Theban  Cadmus  is  merely  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  oldest  Theban  state ;  that  the  selection  of  the  spot  on  which  a 
heifer  had  lain  down  was  a  frequent  practice  among  settlers,  superstitious  about 
the  site  of  their  new  town  ;  that  the  dragon  typifies  the  cruel  and  forbidding  nature 
of  the  uncultivated  surroundings ;  and  that  the  story  of  the  dragon's  teeth  was 
manufactured  to  flatter  the  warlike  spirit  of  the  Thebans,  the  teeth  themselves 
being  spear  points. 

Harmonia,  daughter  of  the  patron  deities  of  Thebes,  is  the  symbol  of  the  peace 
and  domesticity  that  attend  the  final  establishment  of  order  in  the  State. 

According  to  the  Sun-and-Cloud  theory  of  Cox,  Cadmus,  the  Sun,  pursues  his 
sister,  Europa,  the  broad-flushing  light  of  Dawn,  who  has  been  carried  off  on  a 
spotless  cloud  (the  Bull).  The  Sun,  of  course,  must  journey  farther  west  than 
Crete.  The  heifer  that  he  is  to  follow  is,  therefore,  still  another  cloud  (like  the 
cattle  of  the  Sun,  —  clouds).  The  dragon  of  Mars  is  still  a  third  cloud;  and  this 
the  Sun  dissipates.  A  storm  follows,  after  which  new  conflicts  arise  between  the 
clouds  that  have  sprung  up  from  the  moistened  earth  (the  harvest  of  armed  men  I). 
This  kind  of  explanation,  indiscriminately  indulged,  delights  the  fancy  of  the 
inventor  and  titillates  the  risibles  of  the  reader. 

Illustrative.  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  9,  506.  The  serpent  that  tempted  Eve  com- 
pared with  the  serpents  Cadmus  and  "  Hermione."  See  Byron,  Don  Juan,  3,  86, 
"  You  have  the  letters  Cadmus  gave  —  Think  you  he  meant  them  for  a  slave  ? " 

In  Art.  Fig.  54,  in  text:  from  a  vase  in  the  Naples  Museum.  Fig.  55  is  of  a 
vase-painting  from  Eretria. 

71.  Textual.  Eurynome  is  represented  by  some  as  one  of  the  Titans,  the  wife 
of  Ophion.  Ophion  and  Eurynome,  according  to  one  legend,  ruled  over  heaven 
before  the  age  of  Saturn  (Cronus).  So  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  10,  580,  "And 
fabled  how  the  Serpent,  whom  they  called  Ophion,  with  Eurynome  (the  wide- 
Encroaching  Eve  perhaps),  had  first  the  rule  Of  high  Olympus,  thence  by  Saturn 
driven."  According  to  Vulcan's  statement  (Iliad,  18),  Eurynome  was  daughter  of 
Oceanus  and  Tethys.  She  was  mother,  by  Jupiter,  of  the  Graces.  Thetis  :  see  50. 
Xanthus :  the  principal  river  of  Lycia  in  Asia  Minor. 

72-73.  Interpretative.  Latona  (Leto) :  according  to  Homer,  one  of  the  deities 
of  Olympus ;  a  daughter  of  the  Titans  Coeus  and  Phoebe,  whose  names  indicate 
phenomena  of  radiant  light.  She  belonged,  perhaps,  to  an  ancient  theogony  of 
Asia  Minor.  At  any  rate  she  held  at  one  time  the  rank  of  lawful  wife  to  Zeus. 
Preller  and,  after  him.  Cox  take  Leto  as  ///t-  (///v/-  or  Jaii-mss.  Cox  traces  the 
word  to  the  root  of  Lethe  (the  forgetful),  but  Preller  is  doubtful.  Possibly  Leto 
and  Leda,  the  mother  of  the  bright  Castor  and  Pollux,  have  something  in  com- 
mon. The  wanderings  of  Latona  may  be  the  weary  journey  of  the  night  over  the 
mountain  tops,  l)oth  before  and  after  the  Sun  (Apollo)  is  born  in  Delos  (the  land 
of  Dawn). 


494 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Illustrative.  Milton,  Arcades,  20.  and  Sonnet  XII,  "  On  the  detraction  which 
followed  upon  my  writing  certain  treatises." 

74.  Textual.  Hyperboreans :  those  who  dwell  in  the  land  beyond  the  North. 
Paean,  see  C.  68.  Tityus  :  an  earthborn  giant ;  condemned  to  the  underworld,  he 
lay  stretched  over  nine  acres  while  two  vultures  devoured  his  liver. 

Interpretative.  Python:  in  many  savage  myths,  a  serpent,  a  frog,  or  a  lizard 
that  drinks  up  all  the  waters,  and  is  destroyed  by  some  national  hero  or  god. 
Af.  Mr.  Lang  says  :  "  Whether  the  slaying  of  the  Python  was  or  was  not  originally 
an  allegory  of  the  defeat  of  winter  by  sunlight,  it  certainly,  at  a  very  early  period, 
became  mixed  up  with  ancient  legal  ideas  and  local  traditions.  It  is  almost  as 
necessary  for  a  young  god  or  hero  to  slay  monsters  as  for  a  young  lady  to  be  pre- 
sented at  court ;  and  we  may  hesitate  to  explain  all  these  legends  of  a  useful  feat 
of  courage  as  nature  myths"  (Myth,  Ritual,  etc.,  2,  196).  Compare  the  feats  of 
Hercules,  Jason,  Bellerophon,  Perseus,  St.  George  and  the  Dragon,  Sigurd,  and 
Jack  the  Giant  Killer.  Commentators  take  Python  to  be  the  rigor  of  winter,  or  the 
darkness  of  night,  or  a  "  black  storm-cloud  which  shuts  up  the  waters  "  (Cox).  It 
is  not  impossible  that  the  Python  was  the  sacred  snake  of  an  older  animal  worship 
superseded  by  that  of  Apollo.    (See  also  C.  38.) 

75.  Textual.  The  Tyrian  hue  is  purple,  made  from  the  juice  of  the  murex,  or 
purple  shellfish.  On  the  leaves  of  the  hyacinth  were  inscribed  characters  like 
Ai,  Ai,  the  Greek  exclamation  of  woe.  It  is  evidently  not  our  modern  hyacinth 
that  is  here  described,  but  perhaps  some  species  of  iris,  or  of  larkspur,  or  pansy. 
The  meaning  of  the  name  is  also  uncertain,  but  the  best  authorities  idivor  youth- 
ful. A  festival  called  the  Hyacinthia  was  celebrated,  in  commemoration  of  the 
myth,  over  a  large  part  of  the  Peloponnesus.  It  lasted  three  days,  probably  in  the 
first  half  of  July.  It  consisted  of  chants  of  lamentation  and  fasting  during  the 
first  and  last  days ;  during  the  second  day,  of  processions,  a  horse  race,  joyous 
choral  songs,  dances,  feasting,  and  sacrifice. 

Interpretative.  Most  scholars  consider  Hyacinthus  to  be  the  personification 
of  the  blooming  vegetation  of  spring,  which  withers  under  the  heats  of  summer. 
The  Hyacinthian  festival  seems  to  have  celebrated  —  hke  the  Linus  festival  and 
the  Eleusinian  —  the  transitory  nature  of  life  and  the  hope  of  immortality. 

Illustrative.  Keats,  Endymion,  "  Pitying  the  sad  death  Of  Hyacinthus,  when  the 
cool  breath  Of  Zephyr  slew  him  "  (see  context) ;  Milton,  Lycidas,  "  Like  to  that 
sanguine  flower  inscribed  with  woe" ;  On  the  Death  of  a  Fair  Infant,  4. 

In  Art.    Fig.  58,  in  text,  is  of  a  marble  group  in  the  Hope  Collection. 

76.  Textual.  Clymene :  a  daughter  of  Oceanus  and  Tethys.  Chrysolite :  or 
gold  stone,  our  topaz.  Daystar :  Phosphor,  see  38  (11).  Ambrosia  {ifxfipSffios. 
Afi^poToi,  it.-^poTbs),  immortal,  —  here,  "food  for  the  immortals."  Turn  off  to  the 
left :  indicating  the  course  of  the  sun,  west  by  south.  The  Serpent,  or  Dragon  : 
a  constellation  between  the  Great  and  Little  Bears.  Bootes :  the  constellation 
called  the  Wagoner.  The  limits  of  the  Scorpion  were  restricted  by  the  insertion 
of  the  sign  of  the  Scales.  Athos :  a  mountain  forming  the  eastern  of  three  pen- 
insulas south  of  Macedonia.    Mount  Taurus:   in  .Armenia.    Mount  Tmolus :  in 


COMMEN'J'ARV  495 

Lydia.  Mount  CEte  :  between  Thessaly  and  Etolia,  where  Hercules  ascended  his 
funeral  pile.  Ida  :  the  name  of  two  mountains,  —  one  in  Crete,  where  Jupiter  was 
nurtured  by  Amalthea,  the  other  in  Phrygia,  near  Troy.  Mount  Helicon :  in 
Rceotia,  sacred  also  to  Apollo.  Mount  Haemus :  in  Thrace.  iEtna :  in  Sicily. 
Parnassus :  in  Phocis  ;  one  peak  was  sacred  to  Apollo,  the  other  to  the  Muses. 
The  Castalian  Spring,  sacred  to  the  Muses,  is  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain  ;  Delphi 
is  near  by.  Rhodope  :  part  of  the  Haemus  range  of  mountains.  Scythia  :  a  gen- 
eral designation  of  Europe  and  Asia  north  of  the  Back  Sea.  Caucasus :  between 
the  Black  and  Caspian  seas.  Mount  Ossa :  associated  with  Mount  Pelion  in  the 
story  of  the  giants,  who  piled  one  on  top  of  the  other  in  their  attempt  to  scale 
Olympus.  These  mountains,  with  Pindus,  are  in  Thessaly.  Libyan  desert :  in 
Africa.  Libya  was  fabled  to  have  been  the  daughter  of  Epaphus,'  king  of  Egypt. 
Tana'is :  the  Don,  in  Scythia.  Ca'icus :  a  river  of  Greater  Mysia,  flowing  into  the 
sea  at  Lesbos.  Xanthus  and  Maeander :  rivers  of  Phrygia,  flowing  near  Troy. 
Cayster:  a  river  of  Ionia,  noted  for  its  so-called  "tuneful"  swans.  For  Nereus, 
Doris,  Nereids,  etc.,  see  50  and  52.  Eridanus :  the  mythical  name  of  the  river 
Po  in  Italy  (amber  was  found  on  its  banks).    Naiads,  see  52  (6). 

Interpretative.  Apollo  assumed  many  of  the  attributes  of  Helios,  the  older 
divinity  of  the  sun,  who  is  ordinarily  reputed  to  be  the  father  of  Phaethon  (ordi- 
narily anglicized  Phaeton).  The  name  Phaethon,  like  the  name  Fhahits,  means 
the  radiant  one.  The  sun  is  called  both  Helios  Phaethon  and  Helios  Phoebus 
in  Homer.  It  was  an  easy  feat  of  the  imagination  to  make  Phaethon  the  incautious 
son  of  Helios,  or  Apollo,  and  to  suppose  that  extreme  drought  is  caused  by  his 
careless  driving  of  his  father's  chariot.  The  drought  is  succeeded  by  a  thunder- 
storm ;  and  the  lightning  puts  an  end  to  Phaethon.  The  rain  that  succeeds  the 
lightning  is,  according  to  Cox,  the  tears  of  the  Heliades.  It  is  hardly  wise  to  press 
the  analogy  so  far,  unless  one  is  prepared  to  explain  the  amber  in  the  same  way. 

Illustrative.  Milman  in  his  Samor  alludes  to  the  story.  See  also  Chaucer,  Hous 
of  Fame,  435;  Spenser,  Faerie  Queene,  i,  4,  9;  Shakespeare,  Richard  II,  III, 
iii;  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona,  III,  i;  3  Henry  VI,  I,  iv ;  II,  vi ;  Romeo  and 
Juliet,  III,  ii.  Poems:  Prior,  Female  Phaeton;  J.  G.  Saxe,  Phaeton;  and  G. 
Meredith,  Phaeton.  ¥ov  description  of  the  palace  and  chariot  of  the  Sun,  see 
Landor,  Gebir,  Bk.  i. 

In  Art:  Fig.  59,  in  text :  a  relief  on  a  Roman  sarcophagus  in  the  Louvre. 

77.  Textual.  For  the  siege  of  Troy,  see  Chap.  XXII.  Atrides  (Atreides) :  the 
son  of  Atreus,  Agamemnon.  The  ending  -ides  means  son  of,  and  is  used  in  patro- 
nymics;  for  instance,  Pelides  (Peleides),  Achilles;  Tydides,  Diomede,  son  of 
Tydeus.  The  ending  -is,  in  patronymics,  means  daughter  of;  as  Tyndaris,  daughter 
of  Tyndarus  (Tyndareus),  Helen;  Chryseis,  daughter  of  Chryses. 

Interpretative.  Of  this  incident  Gladstone,  in  his  primer  on  Homer,  says : 
"  One  of  the  greatest  branches  and  props  of  morality  for  the  heroic  age  lay  in 
the  care  of  the  stranger  and  the  poor.  .  .  .  Sacrifice  could  not  be  substituted  for 
duty,  nor  could  prayer.  Such,  upon  the  abduction  of  Chryseis,  was  the  reply  of 
Calchas  the  Seer  :  nothing  would  avail  but  restitution." 


496  'rni'>  ci-Assic  mvths 

78.  The  Dynasty  of  Tantalus  and  its  Connections.    (See  also  Tabic  I.) 

Table  V 

Jupiter  Atlas 


Jupiter  =  Antiope 


I  [  I 

Tantalus  =  Dione      Mars  =  Rterope  11 
(k.  of  Phrj'gia)  | 

I  Oinomaiis 


Amphion  =  Niobe 

sons  and  7  daughters 


Pelops  =  Hippodamia 


Minos  II 


Aerope  =  Atreus 


Agamemnon 


Menelaiis 


Thyestes 


.'Egisthus 


Fittheus 
(k.  of  Troezen) 

I 
-Kthra  =  yEgeus 

Theseus 

Pelops.  It  is  said  that  the  goddess  Demeter  in  a  fit  of  absent-mindedness  ate 
the  shoulder  of  Pelops.  'I'he  part  was  replaced  in  ivory  when  Pelops  was  restored 
lo  life.   Mount  Cynthus  :  in  Delos,  where  Apollo  and  Diana  were  born. 

Interpretative.  Max  Miiller  derives  Niobe  from  the  root  stii/,  or  sniif/t,  from 
which  come  the  words  for  iU02v  in  the  Indo-European  languages.  In  Latin  and 
(Ireek,  the  stem  is  Nk',  hence  Nib,  Niobe.  The  myth,  therefore,  would  signify 
the  melting  of  snow  and  the  destruction  of  its  icy  offspring  under  the  rays  of  the 
spring  sun  (Sci.  Relig.  372).  According  to  Homer  (Iliad,  24,  611),  there  were  six 
sons  and  six  daughters.  After  their  death  no  one  could  bury  them,  since  all  who 
looked  on  them  were  turned  to  stone.  The  burial  was,  accordingly,  performed  on 
the  tenth  day  after  the  massacre,  by  Jupiter  and  the  other  gods.  This  petrifaction 
of  the  onlookers  may  indicate  the  operation  of  the  frost.  Cox  says  that  Niobe, 
the  snow,  compares  her  golden-tinted,  wintry  mists  or  clouds  with  the  splendor 
of  the  sun  and  moon.  Others  look  upon  the  myth  as  significant  of  the  withering 
of  spring  vegetation  under  the  heats  of  summer  (Preller).  The  latter  explanation 
is  as  satisfactory,  for  spring  is  the  child  of  winter  (Niobe). 

Illustrative.  Pope,  Dunciad,  2,  311;  Lewis  Morris,  Niobe  on  Sipylus  (Songs 
Unsung) ;  Byron's  noble  stanza  on  fallen  Rome,  "  The  Niobe  of  nations !  there 
she  stands,  Childless  and  crownless,  in  her  voiceless  woe,"  etc.  (Childe  Harold, 
4,  79) ;  W.  S.  Landor,  Niobe  ;  Frederick  Tennyson,  Niobe.  On  Tantalus,  see  Lewis 
Morris,  Tantalus,  in  The  Epic  of  Hades.  On  Sir  Richard  Klackmore,  a  physician 
and  poor  poet,  Thomas  Moore  writes  the  following  stanza : 

'T  was  in  his  carriage  the  sublime 
Sir  Richard  Blackmore  used  to  rhyme, 
And,  if  the  wits  don't  do  him  wrong, 
'Twixt  death  and  epics  passed  his  time, 
.Scribbling  and  killing  all  day  long ; 

Like  Phoebus  in  his  car  at  ease, 
Now  warbling  forth  a  lofty  song. 
Now  murdering  the  young  Niobes. 


COMMENTARY  497 

In  Art.  The  restoration  of  the  statue  of  Niobe,  Mount  Sipylus ;  of  extreme 
antiquity.  The  I'etrograd  relief  (see  Fig.  61,  in  text)  is  probably  the  best  group. 
Figs.  60  and  62  are  from  the  ancient  marbles  in  the  Uflfizi,  Florence.  The  frag- 
ments of  the  latter  group  were  discovered  in  1583  near  the  Porta  San  Giovanni, 
Rome.  The  figure  of  the  mother,  clasping  the  little  girl  who  has  run  to  her  in 
terror,  is  one  of  the  most  admired  of  the  ancient  statues.  It  ranks  with  the 
Laocoon  and  the  Apollo  Belvedere  among  the  masterpieces  of  art.  The  following 
is  a  translation  of  a  Greek  epigram  supposed  to  relate  to  this  statue : 

To  stone  the  gods  have  changed  her,  but  in  vain ; 
The  sculptor's  art  has  made  her  breathe  again. 

There  is  also  a  fine  figure  of  a  daughter  of  Xiobe  in  the  Vatican,  Rome ;  and  there 
are  figures  in  the  Louvre.    Reinach  in  his  Apollo  attributes  the  originals  to  Scopas. 

79.  Interpretative.  The  month  in  which  the  festival  of  Linus  took  place  was 
called  the  Lambs'  Month:  the  days  were  the  Lambs'  Days,  on  one  of  which  was 
a  massacre  of  dogs.  .According  to  some,  Liniis  was  a  minstrel,  son  of  .\ polio  and 
the  Muse  Urania,  and  the  teacher  of  Orpheus  and  Hercules. 

80.  Centaurs.  Monsters  represented  as  men  from  the  head  to  the  loins,  while 
the  remainder  of  the  body  was  that  of  a  horse.  Centaurs  are  the  only  monsters  of 
antiquity  to  which  any  good  traits  were  assigned.  They  were  admitted  to  the 
companionship  of  men.  Chiron  was  the  wisest  and  justest  of  the  Centaurs.  At 
his  death  he  was  placed  by  Jupiter  among  the  stars  as  the  constellation  Sagittarius 
(the  Archer).  Messenia:  in  the  Peloponne-sus.  .ffisculapius  :  there  were  numerous 
oracles  of  T'.sculapius,  but  the  most  celebrated  was  at  Epidaurus.  Here  the  sick 
sought  responses  and  the  recovery  of  their  health  by  sleeping  in  the  temple.  It 
has  been  inferred  from  the  accounts  that  have  come  down  to  us  that  the  treatment 
of  the  sick  resembled  what  is  now  called  animal  magnetism  or  mesmerism. 

Serpents  were  sacred  to  ^'Esculapius,  probably  because  of  a  superstition  that 
those  animals  have  a  faculty  of  renewing  their  youth  by  a  change  of  skin.  The 
worship  of  ,F,sculapius  was  introduced  into  Rome  in  a  time  of  great  sickness.  An 
embassy,  sent  to  the  temple  of  Epidaurus  to  entreat  the  aid  of  the  god,  was  pro- 
pitiously received ;  and  on  the  return  of  the  ship  .Esculapius  accompanied  it  in 
the  form  of  a  serpent.  Arriving  in  the  river  Tiber,  the  serpent  glided  from  the 
vessel  and  took  possession  of  an  island,  upon  which  a  temple  was  soon  erected 
to  his  honor. 

Interpretative,  'i'he  healing  powers  of  nature  may  be  here  symbolized.  Dul  it 
is  more  likely  that  the  family  of  Asclepiadae  (a  medical  clan)  invented  .\sklepios 
as  at  once  their  ancestor  and  the  son  of  the  god  of  healing,  Apollo. 

Illustrative.  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  o-  506:  Shakespeare.  Pericles,  Til,  ii ; 
Merry  Wives,   II.  iii. 

In  Art.  /F.sculapius  (sculpture),  Vatican  ;  also  the  statue  in  the  Uffizi,  Flor- 
ence (text.  Fig.  631.  Thorwaldsen's  (sculpture)  Hygea  (Health)  and  .Esculapius, 
Copenhagen. 

81.  Interpretative.  Perhaps  the  unceasing  and  unvarying  round  nf  the  sun  led 
to  the  conception  of  him  as  a  servant.    Max  Miiller  cites  the  I'cruvian   Inca  who 


49^  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

said  that  if  the  sun  were  free,  like  fire,  he  would  visit  new  parts  of  the  heavens. 
"  He  is,"  said  the  Inca,  "  like  a  tied  beast  who  goes  ever  round  and  round  in  the 
same  track"  (Chips,  etc.,  2, 113).  Nearly  all  Greek  heroes  had  to  undergo  servitude, 
—  Hercules,  Perseus,  etc.  No  stories  are  more  beautiful  or  more  lofty  than  those 
which  express  the  hope,  innate  in  the  human  heart,  that  somewhere  and  at  some 
time  some  god  has  lived  as  a  man  among  men  and  for  the  good  of  men.  Such 
stories  are  not  confined  to  the  Greeks  or  the  Hebrews. 

Illustrative.  R.  Browning,  Apollo  and  the  Fates ;  Edith  M.  Thomas.  Apollo  the 
Shepherd;  Emma  Lazarus,  Admetus;  \V.  M.  W.  Call,  Admetus. 

83.  Textual.  Alcestis  was  a  daughter  of  the  Pelias  who  was  killed  at  the  insti- 
gation of  Medea  (167).  In  that  affair  Alcestis  took  no  part.  For  her  family,  see 
Table  G.  She  was  held  in  the  highest,  honor  in  Greek  fable,  and  ranked  with 
Penelope  and  Laodamia,  the  latter  of  whom  was  her  niece.  To  explain  the  myth 
as  a  physical  allegory  would  be  easy,  but  is  it  not  more  likely  that  the  idea  of 
subsiiiiition  finds  expression  in  the  myth .'  —  that  idea  of  atonement  by  sacrifice, 
which  is  suggested  in  the  words  of  OLdipus  at  Colonus  (185),  "  For  one  soul  work- 
ing in  the  strength  of  love  Is  mightier  than  ten  thousand  to  atone."  Kor^  (the 
daughter  of  Ceres) :  Proserpina.   Larissa:  a  city  of  Thessaly,  on  the  river  Peneiis. 

Illustrative.    Milton's  sonnet.  On  his  Deceased  Wife ; 

Methought  I  saw  my  late  espoused  saint 
Brought  to  me  like  Alcestis  from  the  grave, 
Whom  Jove's  great  son  to  her  glad  husband  gave, 

Rescued  from  death  by  force,  though  pale  and  faint. 

Chaucer,  Legende  of  Good  Women,  208  etseg. ;  Court  of  Love  (?),  100  ei  seq. 

Poems.  Robert  Browning's  noble  poem,  Balaustion's  Adventure,  purports  to 
be  a  paraphrase  of  the  Alcestis  of  Euripides,  but  while  it  maintains  the  classical 
spirit,  it  is  in  execution  an  original  poem.  The  Love  of  Alcestis,  by  William 
Morris ;  Mrs.  Hemans,  The  Alcestis  of  Alfieri,  and  The  Death  Song  of  Alcestis  ; 
W.  S.  Landor,  Hercules,  Pluto,  Alcestis,  and  Admetus;  Alcestis:  F.  T.  Palgrave, 
W.  M.  W.  Call,  John  Todhunter  (a  drama). 

In  Art.  Fig.  64,  in  text,  Naples  Museum  ;  also  the  relief  on  a  Roman  sarcoph- 
agus in  the  Vatican. 

84.  Textual.  This  Laomedon  was  descended,  through  Dardanus  (the  forefather 
of  the  Trojan  race),  from  Jupiter  and  the  Pleiad  Electra.  For  further  information 
about  him.  see  119,  161,  and  Table  L 

Interpretative.  Apollo  evidently  fulfills,  under  Laomedon.  his  function  as  god 
of  colonization. 

85-86.  Textual.  For  Pan,  see  43;  for  Tmolus,  76.  Peneiis  :  a  river  in  Thessaly. 
which  rises  in  Mount  Pindus  and  flows  through  the  wooded  valley  of  Tempe. 
Daedal:  variously  adorned,  variegated.    Midas  was  king  of  Phrygia  (see  113). 

Illustrative.    The  story  of  King  Midas  has  been  told  by  others  with  some 

variations.    Dryden,  in  the  Wife  of  Bath's  Tale,  makes  Midas'  queen  the  betrayer 

of  the  secret : 

This  Midas  knew,  and  durst  communicate 

To  none  but  to  his  wife  his  cars  of  state. 


COMMKN^l'ARV  499 

W.  Illustrative.  M.  Arnold,  Empedocles  (Song  of  Callicles) ;  L.  Morris, 
Marsyas,  in  The  Epic  of  Hades ;  Edith  M.  Thomas,  Marsyas ;  E.  Lee-Hamilton. 
Apollo  and  Marsyas. 

In  Art.  Raphael's  drawing,  Apollo  and  Marsyas  (Museum,  Venice) ;  Bordone's 
Apollo,  Marsyas,  and  Midas  (Dresden)  ;  the  Graeco-Roman  sculpture,  Marsyas 
(Louvre)  ;  Marsyas  (or  Dancing  Faun),  in  the  Lateran,  Rome. 

89.  Textual.  Daphne  was  a  sister  of  Cyrene,  another  sweetheart  of  Apollo's 
(145).  Delphi,  in  Phocis,  and  Tenedos,  an  island  off  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor, 
near  Troy,  were  celebrated  for  their  temples  of  Apollo.  The  latter  temple  was 
sacred  to  Apollo  Smintheus,  the  Mouse-Apollo,  probably  because  he  had  riu 
that  country  of  mice  as  St.  Patrick  rid  Ireland  of  snakes  and  toads.  Dido  :  queen 
of  Carthage  (252),  whose  lover,  /Eneas,  sailed  away  from  her. 

Interpretative.  Max  Miiller's  explanation  is  poetic  though  not  philologically 
probable.  "  Daphne,  or  Ahana,  means  the  Dawn.  There  is  first  the  appearance 
of  the  dawn  in  the  eastern  sky,  then  the  rising  of  the  sun  as  if  hurrying  after  his 
bride,  then  the  gradual  fading  away  of  the  bright  dawn  at  the  touch  of  the  fiery 
rays  of  the  sun,  and  at  last  her  death  or  disappearance  in  the  lap  of  her  mother, 
the  earth."  The  word  Daphne  also  means,  in  Greek,  a  laurel;  hence  the  legend 
that  Daphne  was  changed  into  a  laurel  tree  (Sci.  Relig.,  378,  379).  Others  con- 
strue Daphne  as  the  lightnitig.  It  is,  however,  very  probable  that  the  Greeks  of 
the  myth-making  age,  finding  certain  plants  and  flowers  sacred  to  Apollo,  would 
invent  stories  to  explain  why  he  preferred  the  laurel,  the  hyacinth,  the  sunflower, 
etc.  "  Such  myths  of  metamorphoses  "  are,  as  Mr.  Lang  says,  "  an  universal  growth 
of  savage  fancy,  and  spring  from  a  want  of  a  sense  of  difference  beUveen  men 
and  things"  (Myth,  Ritual,  etc.,  2,  206). 

Illustrative.  Shakespeare,  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  II,  ii;  Taming  of  the 
Shrew,  Induction  ii;  Troilus  and  Cressida,  I,  i;  Milton,  Comus,  59,662;  Hymn  on 
the  Nativity,  11.  176-180,  Vacation,  33-40  ;  Paradise  Lost,  4,  268-275;  Paradise  Re- 
gained, 2,  187  ;  Lord  de  Tabley  (Wm.  Lancaster),  Daphne, ""  All  day  long,  In  devi- 
ous forest,  Grove,  and  fountain  side.  The  god  had  sought  his  Daphne,"  etc. ;  Lyly, 
King  Mydas ;  Apollo's  Song  to  Daphne ;  Frederick  Tennyson,  Daphne.  Waller 
applies  this  story  to  the  case  of  one  whose  amatory  verses,  though  they  did  not 
soften  the  heart  of  his  mistress,  yet  won  for  the  poet  widespread  fame : 

Yet  what  he  sung  in  his  immortal  strain, 

Though  unsuccessful,  was  not  sung  in  vain. 

All  but  the  nymph  that  should  redress  his  wrong, 

Attend  his  passion  and  approve  his  song. 

Like  Phoebus  thus,  acquiring  unsought  praise, 

He  caught  at  love  and  filled  his  arms  with  bays.  . 

In  Art.  Fig.  67,  in  text;  Bernini's  Apollo  and  Daphne,  in  the  Villa  Borghese, 
Rome  (see  text,  opp.  p.  112).    Painting:  G.  F.  Watts'  Daphne. 

91.  Illustrative.  Hood,  Flowers,  "  I  will  not  have  the  mad  Clytia,  Whose  head 
is  turned  by  the  sun,"  etc. ;  W.  W.  Story,  Clytie  ;  Mrs.  A.  Fields,  Clytia.  The  so- 
called  bust  of  Clytie  (discovered  not  long  ago)  is  possibly  a  representation  of  Isis. 


500  THE  CLASSIC   MVIHS 

93.  Textual.  Elis :  northwestern  part  of  the  Peloponnesus.  Alpheiis :  a 
river  of  Elis  flowing  to  the  Mediterranean.  The  river  Alpheiis  does  in  fact 
disappear  under  ground,  in  part  of  its  course,  finding  its  way  through  subter- 
ranean channels,  till  it  again  appears  on  the  surface.  It  was  said  that  the  Sicilian 
fountain  Arethusa  was  the  same  stream,  which,  after  passing  under  the  sea,  came 
up  again  in  Sicily.  Hence  the  story  ran  that  a  cup  thrown  into  the  Alpheiis 
appeared  again  in  the  Arethusa.  It  is,  possibly,  this  fable  of  the  underground 
course  of  Alpheiis  that  Coleridge  has  in  mind  in  his  dream  of  Kubla  Khan: 

In  Xanadu  did  Kubla  Khan 
A  stately  pleasure-dome  decree : 
Where  Alph,  the  sacred  river,  ran 
Through  caverns  measureless  to  man, 
Down  to  a  sunless  sea. 

In  one  of  Moore's  juvenile  poems  he  alludes  to  the  practice  of  throwing  gar 
lands  or  other  light  objects  on  the  stream  of  Alpheiis,  to  be  carried  downward 
by  it,  and  afterward  reproduced  at  its  emerging,  "  as  an  offering  To  lay  at 
Arethusa's  feet." 

The  Acroceraunian  Mountains  are  in  Epirus  in  the  northern  part  of  Greece. 
It  is  hardly  necessary  to  point  out  that  a  river  Arethusa  arising  there  could  not 
possibly  be  approached  by  an  Alpheiis  of  the  Peloponnesus.  Such  a  criticism  of 
Shelley's  sparkling  verses  would  however  be  pedantic  rather  than  just.  Probably 
Shelley  uses  the  word  Acivcemnn/an  as  synonymous  with  sleep,  dangerous.  If  so, 
he  had  the  practice  of  Ovid  behind  him  (Remedium  Amoris,  739).  Mount  Ery- 
manthus :  between  Arcadia  and  Achaia.  The  Dorian  deep :  the  Peloponnesus 
was  inhabited  by  des-^endants  of  the  fabulous  Dorus.  Enna :  a  city  in  the  center 
of  Sicily.    Ortygia :  an  island  on  which  part  of  the  city  of  Syracuse  is  built. 

Illustrative.  Milton,  Arcades,  30  ;  Lycidas,  132  ;  Margaret  J.  Preston,  The  Flight 
of  Arethusa;  Keats,  Endymion,  Bk.  2,  "On  either  side  outgushed,  with  misty 
spray,  A  copious  spring." 

95.  See  genealogical  table  Y.  for  Actaeon.  In  this  myth  Preller  finds  another 
allegory  of  the  baleful  influence  of  the  dog  days  upon  those  exposed  to  the  heat. 
Cox's  theory  that  here  we  have  large  masses  of  cloud  which,  having  dared  to  look 
upon  the  clear  sky,  are  torn  to  pieces  and  scattered  by  the  winds,  is  principally 
instructive  as  illustrating  how  far  afield  theorists  have  gone,  and  how  easy  it  is  to 
invent  ingenious  explanations. 

Illustrative.  Shakespeare,  Merry  Wives,  II,  i ;  III,  ii ;  Titus  Andronicus,  II,  iii ; 
Shelley,  Adonais,  31,  "  Midst  others  of  less  note,  came  one  frail  Form,"  etc.,  a 
touching  allusion  to  hinself;  A.  H.  Clough,  Actaeon;  L.  Morris,  Actaeon  (Epic 
of  Hades). 

96.  Chios :  an  island  i  i  the  JYgeiLn.  Lemnos :  another  island  in  the  ^gean. 
where  Vulcan  had  a  forge. 

Interpretative.  The  ancie,  ts  were  wont  to  glorify  in  fable  constellations  of 
remarkable  brilliancy  or  form.  The  heavenly  adventures  of  Orion  are  sufficiently 
explained  by  the  text. 


COMMEN'IAKV  50I 

Illustrative.  Spenser,  Faerie  Queene,  i,  3,  31;  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  i,  299, 
"  Natheless  he  so  endured,"  etc.;  Longfellow,  Occultation  of  Orion;  R.  H. 
Home,  Orion ;  Charles  Tennyson  Turner,  Orion  (a  sonnet). 

97.  Electra.  See  genealogical  table  L  See  same  table  for  Metope,  the  mother 
of  Glaucus  and  grandmother  of  liellerophon  (155). 

Illustrative.  Pleiads:  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  7,  374;  Pope,  Spring,  102;  Mrs. 
Hemans  has  verses  on  the  same  subject ;  Byron,  "  Like  the  lost  Pleiad  seen  no 
more  below." 

In  modern  sculpture.  The  Lost  Pleiad  of  Randolph  Rogers  is  famous  ;  in  paint- 
ing, the  Pleiades  of  Elihu  Vedder  (Fig.  72,  in  text).  ^ 

98.  Mount  Latmos :  in  Caria.  Diana  is  sometimes  called  Phoebe,  the  shining 
one.    For  the  descendants  of  Endymion,  the  ^tolians,  etc.,  see  Table  L 

Interpretative.  According  to  the  simplest  explanation  of  the  Endymion  myth, 
the  hero  is  the  setting  sun  on  whom  the  upward  rising  moon  delights  to  gaze. 
His  fifty  children  by  Selene  would  then  be  the  fifty  months  of  the  Olympiad,  or 
Greek  period  of  four  years.  Some,  however,  consider  him  to  be  a  personification 
of  sleep,  the  king  whose  influence  comes  over  one  in  the  cool  caves  of  Latmos, 
"  the  Mount  of  Oblivion  "  ;  others,  the  growth  of  vegetation  under  the  dewy  moon- 
light ;  still  others,  euhemeristically,  a  young  hunter,  who  under  the  moonlight 
followed  the  chase,  but  in  the  daytime  slept. 

Illustrative.  The  Endymion  of  Keats.  Pletcher,  in  the  Faithful  Shepherdess, 
tells,  "  How  the  pale  Phoebe,  hunting  in  a  grove.  First  saw  the  boy  Endymion," 
etc.  Young,  Night  Thoughts,  "  So  Cynthia,  poets  feign.  In  shadows  veiled,  .  .'. 
Her  shepherd  cheered  "  ;  Spenser,  Epithalamion,  "  The  Latmian  Shepherd,"  etc. ; 
Marvel,  Songs  on  Lord  Fauconberg  and  the  Lady  Mary  Cromwell  (chorus,  En- 
dymion and  Laura) ;  O.  W.  Holmes,  Metrical  Essays,  "And,  Night's  chaste  em- 
press, in  her  bridal  play.  Laughed  through  the  foliage  where  Endymion  lay." 

Poems.  Besides  Keats'  the  most  important  are  by  Lowell,  Longfellow,  Clough 
(Epi  Latmo,  and  Selene),  T.  B.  Read,  Buchanan,  L.  Morris  (Epic  of  Hades). 
John  Lyly's  prose  drama,  Endymion,  contains  quaint  and  delicate  songs. 

In  Art.    Fig.  73,  in  text;  Diana  and  the  sleeping  Endymion  (Vatican). 

Paintings.  Carracci's  fresco,  Diana  embracing  Endymion  (Farnese  Palace, 
Rome);  Guercino's  Sleeping  Endymion;  G.  F.  Watts'  Endymion. 

100.  Textual.  Paphos  and  Amathus :  towns  in  Cyprus,  of  which  the  former 
contained  a  temple  to  Venus.  Cnidos  (Cnidus  or  Gnidus)  :  a  town  in  Caria,  where 
stood  a  famous  statue  of  Venus,  attributed  to  Praxiteles.  Cytherea :  Venus,  an 
adjective  derived  from  her  island  Cythera  in  the  ^gean  Sea.  Acheron,  and  Per- 
sephone or  Proserpine :  see  44-48.  The  windflower  of  the  Greeks  was  of  bloody 
hue,  like  that  of  the  pomegranate.  It  is  said  the  wind  blows  the  blossoms  open, 
and  afterwards  scatters  the  petals. 

Interpretative.  Among  the  Phoenicians  Venus  is  known  as  Astarte,  among  the 
Assyrians  as  Istar.  The  Adonis  of  this  story  is  the  Phoenician  Adon,  or  the 
Hebrew  Adottai,  '  Lord.'  The  myth  derives  its  origin  from  the  Babylonian  wor- 
ship of  Thammuz  or  Adon,  who  represents  the  verdure  of  spring,  and  whom  his 
mistress,  the  goddess  of  fertility,  seeks,  after  his  death,  in  the  lower  regions. 


502 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Willi  their  departure  all  birtli  and  fruitage  cease  on  the  earth;  but  when  he  lias 
been  revived  by  .sprinkling  of  water,  and  reslon-d  Id  his  mistress  and  to  earth,  all 
nature  again  rejoices.  The  niylii  is  akin  to  tiiosi'  ol  lanus,  Hyacinthus,  and  Nar- 
cissus. Mannhardt  (Wald-  und  Feld-kullc,  274),  cited  by  Roscher,  supplies  the 
following  characteristics  common  to  such  religious  rites  in  various  lands:  (i)  The 
spring  is  personified  as  a  beautiful  youth  who  is  represented  by  an  image  sur- 
rounded by  quickly  fading  flowers  from  the  "garden  of  Adonis."  (2)  He  comes 
in  the  early  year  and  is  beloved  by  a  goddess  of  vegetation,  goddess  sometimes 
of  the  moon,  sometimes  of  the  star  of  Love.  (3)  In  midsummer  he  dies,  and  dur- 
ing autumn  and  winter  inhabits  the  underworld.  (4)  His  burial  is  attended  with 
lamentations,  his  resurrection  with  festivals.  (5)  These  events  take  place  in  mid- 
summer and  in  spring.  (6)  The  image  and  the  Adonis  plants  are  thrown  into 
water.    (7)  Sham  marriages  are  celebrated  between  pairs  of  worshipers. 

Illustrative.  The  realistic  Idyl  XV  of  Theocritus  contains  a  typical  Psalm  of 
Adonis,  sung  at  Alexandria,  for  his  resurrection.  Shakespeare's  Venus  and  Adonis; 
Taming  of  the  Shrew,  Induction  ii;   i  Henry  VI,  I,  vi.    In  Milton,  Comus,  998: 

Beds  of  hyacinth  and  roses, 
Where  young  Adonis  oft  reposes, 
Waxing  well  of  his  deep  wound. 
In  slumber  soft,  and  on  the  ground 
Sadly  sits  th'  Assyrian  queen. 

Drummond,  The  Statue  of  Adonis;  Pope,  Summer,  61 ;  Winter,  24;  Miscel.  7,  10; 
Moral  Essays,  3,  73  ;  Dunciad,  5,  202.  See  C.  S.  Calverley,  Death  of  Adonis 
(Theocritus)  ;  L.  Morris,  Adonis  (Epic  of  Hades). 

In  Art.  Fig.  74,  in  text,  from  a  Roman  sarcophagus.  The  Dying  Adonis, 
(sculpture),  Michelangelo  ;  the  Adonis  of  Thorwaldsen  in  the  Glyptothek,  Munich. 

101-102.  Textual.  Psyche  does  not  eat  anything  in  Hades,  because,  by  accept- 
ing the  hospitality  of  Proserpina,  she  would  become  an  inmate  of  her  household. 
The  scene  with  the  lamp  and  knife  probably  indicates  the  infringement  of  some 
ancient  matrimonial  custom.  Erebus  :  the  land  of  darkness.  Hades.  For  Zephyr, 
Acheron,  Cerberus,  Charon,  etc.,  see  Index. 

Interpretative.  The  fable  of  Cupid  and  Psyche  is  usually  regarded  as  allegorical. 
The  Greek  name  for  butterfly  is  Psyche,  and  the  same  word  means  the  soul. 
There  is  no  illustration  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul  so  striking  and  beautiful  as 
that  of  the  butterfly,  bursting  on  brilliant  wings  from  the  tomb  in  which  it  has 
lain,  after  a  dull,  groveling,  caterpillar  existence,  to  flutter  in  the  blaze  of  day 
and  feed  on  the  most  fragrant  and  delicate  productions  of  the  spring.  Psyche, 
then,  is  the  human  soul,  which  is  purified  by  sufferings  and  misfortunes,  and  is 
thus  prepared  for  the  enjoyment  of  true  and  pure  happiness.  It  is  probable  that 
the  story  allegorizes  a  philosophical  conception  concerning  three  stages  of  the 
soul's  life  :  first,  a  former  existence  of  bliss ;  second,  an  earthly  existence  of  trial ; 
third,  a  heavenly  future  of  fruition.  Cox,  by  his  usual  method,  finds  here  a  myth 
of  the  search  for  the  Sun  (Eros)  by  the  Dawn  (Psyche).  Many  of  the  incidents 
of  the  story  will  be  found  in  modern  fairytales  and  romances,  such  as  Beauty  and 


COMMENTARY 


503 


the  Beast,  Grimm's  Twelve  Brothers  ;  the  GaeHc  stories  :  The  Three  Daughters  of 
King  O'Hara ;  Fair,  Brown,  and  Trembhng ;  The  Daughter  of  the  Skies  ;  and  the 
Norse  tale  —  East  of  the  Sun  and  West  of  the  Moon.   See  Cox  i,  403-411. 

Illustrative.  Thomas  Moore,  Cupid  and  Psyche ;  Mrs.  Browning,  Psyche, 
Paraphrase  on  Apuleius ;  L.  Morris,  in  The  Epic  of  Hades  ;  Frederick  Tennyson, 
Psyche ;  Robert  Bridges,  Eros  and  Psyche.  Most  important  is  W.  H.  Pater's 
Marius  the  Epicurean,  which  coritains  the  story  as  given  by  Apuleius. 

In  Art.  Psyche  is  represented  as  a  maiden  with  the  wings  of  a  butterfly,  in 
the  different  situations  described  in  the  allegory.  The  Graeco-Roman  sculpture 
of  Cupid  and  Psyche,  in  the  Capitol  at  Rome,  is  of  surpassing  beauty ;  so  also  is 
Canova's  Cupid  and  Psyche. 

Paintings.  Raphael's  frescoes  in  the  Farnesina  Villa,  twelve  in  number,  illus- 
trating the  story;  Fran9ois  Gerard's  Cupid  and  Psyche;  Paul  Thumann's  nine 
illustrations  of  the  story  (see  Figs.  75,  76,  in  text);  R.  Beyschlag's  Psyche  with 
the  Urn,  Psyche  Grieving,  and  Psyche  and  Pan ;  W.  Kray's  Psyche  and  Zephyr ; 
Psyche:  by  A.  de  Curzon ;  by  G.  F.  Watts,  a  series  of  three  illustrations  by  11. 
Bates.  The  Charon  and  Psyche  of  E.  Neide  is  a  sentimental,  simpering  concep- 
tion.  A.  Zick  also  has  a  Psyche. 

103.  According  to  another  tradition,  Atalanta's  love  was  Milanion.  The  nup- 
tial vow  was  ratified  by  Hera  (Juno).  This,  the  Boeotian,  Atalanta  is  sometimes 
identified  with  the  Arcadian  Atalanta  of  the  Calydonian  Hunt.  (See  168  and  Table 
D).  It  is  better  to  discriminate  between  them.  The  genealogy  of  this  Atalanta  will 
be  seen  in  Tables  G  and  I. 

Illustrative.  W.  Morris,  Atalanta's  Race  (Earthly  Paradise)  ;  Moore,  Rhymes 
on  the  Road,  on  Alpine  Scenery,  —  an  allusion  to  Hippomenes. 

In  Art.  Painting  by  E.  J.  Poynter,  Atalanta's  Race  (Fig.  78,  in  text);  and 
Guido  Reni's  brilliant  picture  of  the  same  subject. 

104.  Textual  and  Illustrative.  The  story  of  Hero  and  Leander  is  the  subject 
of  a  romantic  poem  by  Musaeus,  a  grammarian  of  Alexandria,  who  lived  in  the 
fifth  century  A.D.  This  author,  in  distinction  from  the  mythical  poet  of  the  same 
name,  is  styled  the  Pseudo-Musasus.  The  epyllion  has  been  translated  by  Sir 
Robert  Stapylton,  Sir  Edwin  Arnold,  and  others.  The  feat  of  swimming  the 
Hellespont  was  performed  by  Lord  Byron.  The  distance  in  the  narrowest  part  is 
not  more  than  a  mile,  but  there  is  a  constant  dangerous  current  setting  out  from' 
the  Sea  of  Marmora  into  the  Archipelago.  For  an  allusion  to  the  story  see  Byron, 
Bride  of  Abydos,  Canto  II.  For  Byron's  statement  concerning  the  breadth  of  the 
water  see  footnote  to  "  Stanzas  written  after  swimming  from  Sestos  to  Abydos." 

Poems.  Hero  and  Leander  :  by  Leigh  Hunt,  by  Tom  Hood,  by  Moore ;  son- 
net by  D.  G.  Rossetti,  Hero's  Lamp  (House  of  Life)  ;  a  poem  not  in  later  editions 
of  Tennyson,  Hero  to  Leander,  1S30;  Chapman's  continuation  of  Marlowe's  Hero 
and  Leander. 

Paintings.    (1.  von  Bodenhausen ;  F.  Keller  (Fig.  79,  in  text). 

105.  Interpretative.  Another  illustration  of  the  vivifying  influence  uf  love. 
Preller  deems  Pygmalion's  stoiy  nearly  akin  to  the  Adonis  myth.    He  regards 


504 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


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M 

A 

" 

/^ 

■u  — 

y. 

H 

o 

S 

u 

(U 

w 

X 

H 

3 


-o  — 


—        C       O 


II     H 


3     B  = 
-25  — cS  S 


3.3      n!  Ji 


C/J  o 


COMMENTARY  505 

tlie  festival  of  A'enus,  duiing  which  the  slattic  of  dalatea  (or  passive  love) 
receives  life,  as  the  usual  Adonis-festival, 

Illustrative.  Thomson,  Castle  of  Indolence,  2,  12;  R.  Buchanan,  Pygmalion 
the  Sculptor ;  Morris,  and  Lang,  as  in  text ;  Pygmalion :  by  T.  L.  Beddoes,  by 
W.  C.  Bennett.  The  seventeenth-century  satirist,  Marston,  wrote  a  Pygmalion,  of 
no  great  worth.  Frederick  Tennyson,  Pygmalion  (in  Daphne  and  other  Poems)  ; 
Arthur  Henry  Ilallam,  Lines  spoken  in  the  Character  of  Pygmalion ;  Thomas 
Woolner,  Pygmalion. 

In  Art.    The  Pygmalion  series  of  four  scenes,  by  E.  Burne-Jones. 

106.  Textual.  Semiramis :  wife  of  King  Ninus  and  the  queen  of  Assyria. 
Famous  for  her  administrative  and  military  ability-  A  mythical  character  with 
features  of  historic  probability. 

Illustrative.  Chaucer,  Thisbe,  the  Martyr  of  Babylon  (I^egende  of  Good  Women). 
Allusions  in  Surrey,  Of  the  Death  of  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt;  Shakespeare,  Midsummer 
Night's  Dream,  III,  ii;  V,  i;  Merchant  of  Venice,  V,  i.  Moore,  in  the  Sylph's 
Ball,  draws  a  comparison  between  Thisbe's  wall  and  the  gauze  of  Davy's  safety 
lamp.    Mickle's  translation  of  the  Lusiad  (Island  of  Love). 

In  Art.  Burne-Jones'  three  paintings,  Cupid,  Pyramus,  and  Thisbe  (Fig.  So,  in 
text) ;  E.  J.  Paupion's  painting,  Thisbe. 

107.  Textual.  Lesbos  and  Chios :  islands  in  the  .Egean.  For  Sappho  see 
298  (3). 

Illustrative.  The  second  lyric  of  Sappho,  beginning  "  Like  to  the  gods  he 
seems  to  me.  The  man  that  sits  reclined  by  thee,"  has  been  translated  by  Phillips, 
by  Fawkes,  and  by  recent  poets.  The  reference  is  probably  to  Phaon.  Allusions 
in  Pope,  Moral  Essays,  3,  121  ;  2,  24 ;  Prologue  to  Satires,  309,  loi  ;  Byron's  Isles 
of  Greece,  already  referred  to.    Compare  the  translation  in  Catullus,  LI. 

Poems  on  Sappho  or  on  Phaon  :  Charles  Kingsley,  Sappho;  Buchanan,  Sappho 
on  the  Leucadian  Rock ;  Landor,  —  Sappho,  Alcaeus,  Anacreon,  and  Phaon ; 
Frederick  Tennyson,  Kleis  or  the  Return  (in  the  Isles  of  Greece).  See  also 
Lyly's  amusing  prose  drama,  Sappho  and  Phao. 

109.  Textual.  Mount  Cyllene  :  between  Arcadia  and  Achaea.  Pierian  Moun- 
tains: in  Macedonia,  directly  north  of  Thessaly;  the  birthplace  of  the  Muses. 
Pylos :  an  ancient  city  of  Elis. 

Interpretative.  On  the  supposition  that  the  herds  of  Apollo  are  the  bright  rays 
of  the  sun,  a  plausible  physical  explanation  of  the  relations  of  Mercury  (Hermes) 
to  Apollo  is  the  following  from  Max  Miiller:  "  Hermes  is  the  god  of  the  twilight, 
who  betrays  his  equivocal  nature  by  stealing,  though  only  in  fun,  the  herds  of 
Apollo,  but  restoring  them  without  the  violent  combat  that  (in  the  analogous 
Indian  story)  is  waged  for  the  herds  between  Indra,  the  bright  god,  and  Vala,  the 
robber.  In  India  the  dawn  brings  the  light;  in  Greece  the  twilight  itself  is  sup- 
posed to  have  stolen  it,  or  to  hold  back  the  light,  and  Hermes,  the  twilight,  sur- 
renders the  booty  when  challenged  by  the  sun-god  Apollo"  (Lect.  on  Lang., 
2  Sen,  521-522).  Hermes  is  connected  by  Professor  Miiller  with  the  Vedic  god 
Saratneya,  son  of  the  twilight.    Mercury,  or  Hermes,  as  morning  or  as  evening 


5o6  THE  CLASSIC  AIVTHS 

t\vilif;ht,  Imcs  iho  L)cw,  is  linnlcl  of  llir  gods,  is  s|)y  of  (lie  night,  is  spnHpr  of 
sleep  and  dreams,  is  accompanied  by  the  cock,  herald  of  dawn,  is  the  guide  of  tlie 
departed  on  their  last  journey.  ']"o  the  conception  of  twilight,  Cox  adds  that  of 
motion,  and  explains  Hermes  as  the  air  in  motion  that  springs  up  with  the  dawn, 
gains  rapidly  in  force,  sweeps  before  it  the  clouds  (here  the  cattle  of  Apollo), 
makes  soft  music  through  the  trees  (lyre),  etc.  Other  theorists  make  Hermes  the 
Divine  Activity,  the  god  of  the  ether,  of  clouds,  of  storm,  etc.  Though  the  ex- 
planations of  Professor  Miiller  and  the  Rev.  Sir  G.  W.  Cox  are  more  satisfactory 
here  than  usual,  Roscher's  the  swift  wind  is  scientifically  preferable. 

Illustrative.  See  ^helley,  Homeric  Hymn  to  Mercury,  on  which  the  text  of 
this  gection  is  based,  and  passages  in  Prometheus  Unbound;  Keats,  Ode  to  Maia. 

In  Art.  The  intent  of  the  disguise  in  Fig.  8i  (text)  is  to  deceive  Demeter  with 
a  sham  sacrifice. 

110-112.  Textual.  See  Table  E,  for  Bacchus,  Pentheus,  etc.  Nysa  "has been 
identified  as  a  mountain  in  Thrace,  in  Boeotia,  in  Arabia,  India,  Libya  ;  and  Naxos, 
as  a  town  in  Caria  or  the  Caucasus,  and  as  an  island  in  the  Nile."  Thebes :  the 
capital  of  Boeotia.  Maeonia :  Lydia,  in  Asia  Minor.  Dia :  Naxos,  the  largest  of 
the  Cyclades  Islands  in  the  ^Egean.  Mount  Cithaeron :  in  Boeotia.  The  Thyrsus 
was  a  wand,  wreathed  with  ivy  and  surmounted  by  a  pine  cone,  carried  by  Bacchus 
and  his  votaries.  Maenads  and  Bacchantes  were  female  followers  of  Bacchus. 
Bacchanal  is  a  general  term  for  his  devotees. 

Interpretative.  "Bacchus  (Dionysus)  is  regarded  by  many  as  tht  spiritual  form 
of  the  new  vernal  life,  the  sap  and  pulse  of  vegetation  and  of  the  newborn  year, 
especially  as  manifest  in  the  vine  and  juice  of  the  grape."  —  Lang,  Myth,  Ritual, 
etc.,  2,  221  (from  Preller  i,  554).  The  Hyades  (rain-stars),  that  nurtured  the 
deity,  perhaps  symbolize  the  rains  that  nourish  sprouting  vegetation.  He  became 
identified  very  soon  with  the  spirituous  effects  of  the  vine.  His  sufferings  may  typify 
the  "  ruin  of  the  summer  year  at  the  hands  of  storm  and  winter,"  or,  perhaps,  the 
agony  of  the  bleeding  grapes  in  the  wine  press.  The  orgies  would,  according  to  this 
theory,  be  a  survival  of  the  ungoverned  actions  of  savages  when  celebrating  a  festi- 
val in  honor  of  the  deity  of  plenty,  of  harvest  home,  and  of  intoxication.  But  in  cul- 
tivated Greece,  Dionysus,  in  spite  of  the  surviving  orgiastic  ceremonies,  is  a  poetic 
incarnation  of  blithe,  changeable,  spirited  youth.  See  Lang,  Myth,  Ritual,  etc.,  2, 
221-241.  That  Rhea  taught  him  would  account  for  the  Oriental  nature  of  his 
rites ;  for  Rhea  is  an  Eastern  deity  by  origin.  The  opposition  of  Pentheus  would 
indicate  the  reluctance  with  which  the  Greeks  adopted  his  doctrine  and  cere- 
monial. The  Dionysiac  worship  came  from  Thrace,  a  barbarous  cHme ;  —  but 
wandering,  like  the  springtide,  over  the  earth,  Bacchus  conquered  each  nation  in 
turn.  It  is  probable  that  the  Dionysus-Iacchus  cult  was  one  of  evangelical  en- 
thusiasm and  individual  cleansing  from  sin,  of  ideals  in  this  life  and  of  personal 
immortality  in  the  next.  By  introducing  it  into  Greece,  Pisistratus  reformed  the 
exclusive  ritual  of  the  Eleusinian  Mysteries. 

Of  the  Festivals  of  Dionysus,  the  more  important  in  Attica  were  the  Lesser 
Dionysia,  in  December ;  the  Lenaea,  in  January  ;  the  Anthesteria,  or  spring  festival, 


COMMENTARY  507 

in  February ;  and  the  Great  Dionysia,  in  March.  These  all,  in  greater  or  less 
degree,  witnessed  of  the  culture  and  the  glories  of  the  vine,  and  of  the  reawaken- 
ing of  the  spirits  of  vegetation.  They  were  celebrated,  as  the  case  might  be,  with 
a  sacrifice  of  a  victim  in  reminiscence  of  the  blood  by  which  the  spirits  of  the 
departed  were  supposed  to  be  nourished,  with  processions  of  women,  profusion 
of  flowers,  orgiastic  songs  and  dances,  or  dramatic  representations. 

Illustrative.  Bacchus:  Milton,  Comus,  46.  Pentheus:  Landor,  The  Last  Fruit  of 
an  Old  Tree;  If.  II.  Milman,  The  Bacchanals  of  Euripides  ;  Calverley'sand  Lang's 
translations  of  Theocritus,  Idyl  XXVI ;  Thomas  Love  Peacock,  Rhododaphne : 
The  Vengeance  of  Bacchus  ;  B.  W.  Procter,  Bacchanalian  Song.  Naxos  :  Milton, 
Paradise  Lost,  4,  275. 

In  Art.    Figs.  31,  82-87,  143,  in  text. 

113.  Textual.  Hesperides,  see  Index.  River  Pactolus  :  in  Lydia.  Midas  :  the 
son  of  one  Gordius,  who  from  a  farmer  had  become  king  of  Phrygia,  because  he 
happened  to  fulfill  a  prophecy  by  entering  the  public  square  of  some  city  just  as 
the  people  were  casting  about  for  a  king.  He  tied  his  wagon  in  the  temple  of  the 
prophetic  deity  with  the  celebrated  Gordian  Knot,  which  none  but  the  future  lord 
of  Asia  might  undo.    Alexander  the  Great  undid  the  knot  with  his  sword. 

Interpretative.  An  ingenious,  but  not  highly  probable,  theory  explains  the 
golden  touch  of  Midas  as  the  rising  sun  that  gilds  all  things,  and  his  bathing  in 
Pactolus  as  the  quenching  of  the  sun's  splendor  in  the  western  ocean.  Midas  is 
fabled  to  have  been  the  son  of  the  "  great  mother,"  Cybele,  whose  worship  in 
Phrygia  was  closely  related  to  that  of  Bacchus  or  Dionysus.  The  Sileni  were 
there  regarded  as  tutelary  genii  of  the  rivers  and  springs,  promoting  fertility  of 
the  soil.  Marsyas,  an  inspired  musician  in  the  service  of  Cybele,  was  naturally 
associated  in  fable  with  Midas.  The  ass  being  the  favorite  animal  of  Silenus,  the 
ass's  ears  of  Midas  merely  symbolize  his  fondness  for  and  devotion  to  such  habits  as 
were  attributed  to  the  Sileni.  The  ass,  by  the  way,  was  reverenced  in  Phrygia ;  the 
acquisition  of  ass's  ears  may  therefore  have  been  originally  a  glory,  not  a  disgrace. 

Illustrative.  John  Lyly,  Play  of  Mydas,  especially  the  song,  "  Sing  to  Apollo, 
god  of  day";  Shakespeare,  Merchant  of  Venice,  III,  ii  (casket  scene);  Pope, 
Dunciad,  3,  342  ;  Prologue  to  Satires,  82  ;  Swift,  The  Fable  of  Midas  ;  J.  G.  Saxe, 
The  Choice  of  King  Midas  (a  travesty).  Gordian  Knot:  Henry  V,  I,  i;  Cymbe- 
line,  II,  ii ;  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  4,  34S  ;  Vacation,  90.  Pactolus  :  Pope,  Spring, 
61  ;  allusions  also  to  the  sisters  of  Phacthon.    Silenus,  by  W.  S.  Landor. 

114-117.  Textual.  Mount  Eryx,  the  vale  of  Enna,  and  Cyane  are  in  Sicily. 
Eleusis  :  in  Attica.    For  Arethusa  see  Index. 

Interpretative.  The  Italian  goddess  Ceres  assumed  the  attributes  of  the  Greek 
Demeter  in  496  u.c.  Proserpine  signifies  the  seed-corn  which,  when  cast  into  the 
ground,  lies  there  concealed,  —  is  carried  off  by  the  god  of  the  underworld ; 
when  the  corn  reappears,  Proserpine  is  restored  to  her  molhcr.  .Sj)ring  leads 
her  back  to  tlic  light  of  day.  The  lullnw  iiii;,  I'mm  .\ul)rt\-  1  )c  Verc's  introduction 
to  his  Searcii  for  Proserpine,  is  sui;gcsli\  r  :  '"()!'  all  the  beautiful  fictions  of 
(jreek  Mythology,  there  are  few  more  exquisite  than  the  story  of  Prosci'pine,  and 


5o8  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

none  deeper  in  symbolical  meaning.  Considering  the  fable  with  reference  to  the 
physical  world,  Bacon  says,  in  his  Wisdom  of  the  Ancients,  that  by  the  Rape  of 
Proserpine  is  signified  the  disappearance  of  flowers  at  the  end  of  the  year,  when 
the  vital  juices  are,  as  it  were,  drawn  down  to  the  central  darkness,  and  held  there 
in  bondage.  Following  up  this  view  of  the  subject,  the  Search  of  her  Mother, 
sad  and  unavailing  as  it  was,  would  seem  no  unfit  emblem  of  Autumn  and  the 
restless  melancholy  of  the  season ;  while  the  hope  with  which  the  Goddess  was 
finally  cheered  may  perhaps  remind  us  of  that  unexpected  return  of  fine  weather 
which  occurs  so  frequently,  like  an  omen  of  Spring,  just  before  Winter  closes  in. 
The  fable  has,  however,  its  moral  significance  also,  being  connected  with  that 
great  mystery  of  Joy  and  Grief,  of  Life  and  Death,  which  pressed  so  heavily  on 
the  mind  of  Pagan  Greece,  and  imparts  to  the  whole  of  her  mythology  a  profound 
interest,  spiritual  as  well  as  philosophical.  It  was  the  restoration  of  Man,  not  of 
flowers,  the  victory  over  Death,  not  over  Winter,  with  which  that  high  Intelligence 
felt  itself  to  be  really  concerned."  In  Greece  two  kinds  of  Festivals,  the  Eleusinia 
and  the  Thesmophoria,  were  held  in  honor  of  Demeter  and  Persephone.  The 
former  was  divided  into  the  lesser,  celebrated  in  February,  and  the  greater  (lasting 
nine  days),  in  September.  Distinction  must  be  made  between  the  Festivals  and 
the  Mysteries  of  Eleusis.  In  the  Festivals  all  classes  might  participate.  Those  of 
the  Spring  represented  the  restoration  of  Persephone  to  her  mother;  those  of  the 
Autumn  the  rape  of  Persephone.  An  image  of  the  youthful  lacchus  (Bacchus) 
headed  the  procession  in  its  march  toward  Eleusis.  At  that  place  and  in  the 
neighborhood  were  enacted  in  realistic  fashion  the  wanderings  and  the  sufferings 
of  Demeter,  the  scenes  in  the  house  of  Celeus,  and  finally  the  successful  conclu- 
sion of  the  search  for  Persephone.  The  Mysteries  of  Eleusis  were  witnessed 
only  by  the  initiated,  and  were  invested  with  a  veil  of  secrecy  which  has  never 
been  fully  withdrawn.  The  initiates  passed  through  certain  symbolic  ceremonies 
from  one  degree  of  mystic  enlightenment  to  another  till  the  highest  was  attained. 
The  Lesser  Mysteries  were  an  introduction  to  the  Greater ;  and  it  is  known  that 
the  rites  involved  partook  of  the  nature  of  purification  from  passion,  crime,  and 
the  various  degradations  of  human  existence.  By  pious  contemplation  of  the 
dramatic  scenes  presenting  the  sorrows  of  Demeter,  and  by  participation  in  sacra- 
mental rites,  it  is  probable  that  the  initiated  were  instructed  in  the  nature  of  life 
and  death,  and  consoled  with  the  hope  of  immortality  (Preller).  On  the  develop- 
ment of  the  Eleusinian  Mysteries  from  the  savage  to  the  civilized  ceremonial,  see 
Lang,  Myth,  Ritual,  etc.,  2,  275,  and  Lobeck,  Aglaophamus,  133. 

The  Thesmophoria  were  celebrated  by  married  women  in  honor  of  Ceres 
(Demeter),  and  referred  to  institutions  of  married  life. 

That  Proserpine  should  be  under  bonds  to  the  underworld  because  she  had 
partaken  of  food  in  Hades  accords  with  a  superstition  not  peculiar  to  the 
Greeks,  but  to  be  "  found  in  New  Zealand,  Melanesia,  Scotland,  Finland,  and 
among  the  Ojibbeways"  (Lang,  Myth,  Ritual,  etc.,  2,  273). 

Illustrative.  Aubrey  De  Vere,  as  above  ;  B.  W.  Procter,  The-  Rape  of  Proser- 
pine;  R.  II.  Stoddard,  The  Search  for  Persephone;  G.  Meredith,  The  Appease- 


COMMENTARY  509 

ment  of  Demeter  ;  Tennyson,  Demeter  and  Persephone ;  Dora  Greenwell,  Demeter 
and  Cora  ;  T.  L.  Beddoes,  Song  of  the  Stygian  Naiades ;  A.  C.  Swinburne,  Song 
to  Proserpine.  See  also  notes  under  Persephone,  44,  Demeter  and  Pkito.  Eleusis  : 
Schiller,  Festival  of  Eleusis,  translated  by  N.  L.  Frothingham  ;  At  Eleusis,  by 
Swinburne.  See,  for  poetical  reference,  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  4,  269,  "  Not  that 
fair  field  Of  Enna,"  etc. ;  Hood,  Ode  to  Melancholy: 

Forgive  if  somewhile  I  forget. 

In  woe  to  come  the  present  bliss  ; 
As  frighted  Proserpine  let  fall 

Her  flowers  at  the  sight  of  Dis. 

In  Art.  Bernini's  Pluto  and  Proserpine  (sculpture) ;  P.  Schobelt's  Rape  of 
Proserpine  (picture).  Eleusinian  relief:  Demeter,  Cora,  Triptolemus  (Athens); 
and  other  figures,  as  in  text. 

118.  Textual.  Taenarus :  in  Laconia.  For  the  crime  of  Tantalus,  see  78.  In 
Hades  he  stood  up  to  his  neck  in  water  which  receded  when  he  would  drink ; 
grapes  hanging  above  his  head  withdrew  when  he  would  pluck  them ;  while  a 
great  rock  was  forever  just  about  to  fall  upon  him.  Ixion,  for  an  insult  to  Juno, 
was  lashed  with  serpents  or  brazen  bands  to  an  ever-revolving  wheel.  Sisj^hus, 
for  his  treachery  to  the  gods,  vainly  rolled  a  stone  toward  the  top  of  a  hill  (see 
255).  For  the  Danaids,  see  150 ;  Cerberus,  44,  255.  The  Dynast's  bond :  the 
contract  with  Pluto,  who  was  Dynast  or  tyrant  of  Hades.  Ferry-guard:  ('haron. 
Strymon  and  Hebrus :  rivers  of  Thrace.  Libethra :  a  city  on  the  side  of  Mount 
Olympus,  between  Thessaly  and  Macedonia. 

Interpretative.  The  loss  of  Eurydice  may  signify  (like  the  death  of  Adonis  and 
the  rape  of  Proserpine)  the  departure  of  spring.  Max  Miiller,  however,  identifies 
O/fheus  vi\t\i  the  Sanskrit  Arb/nt,  used  as  a  name  for  the  Sun  (Chips,  etc.,  2,  127). 
According  to  this  explanation  the  Sun  follows  Eurydice,  "  the  wide-spreading 
flush  of  the  dawn  who  has  been  stung  by  the  serpent  of  night,"  into  the  regions 
of  darkness.  There  he  recovers  Eurydice,  but  while  he  looks  back  upon  her  she 
fades  before  his  gaze,  as  the  mists  of  morning  vanish  before  the  glory  of  the 
rising  sun  (Cox).  It  might  be  more  consistent  to  construe  Eiiiydicc  as  the  hvilight, 
first,  of  evening  which  is  slain  by  night,  then,  of  morning  which  is  dissipated  by 
sunrise.  Cox  finds  in  the  music  of  Orpheus  the  delicious  strains  of  the  breezes 
which  accompany  sunrise  and  sunset.  The  story  should  be  compared  with  that 
of  Apollo  and  Daphne,  and  of  Mercury  and  Apollo.  The  Irish  tale,  The  Three 
Daughters  of  King  O'Hara,  reverses  the  relation  of  Orpheus  and  Eurydice. 
.See  Curtin,  Myths  and  Folk- Lore  of  Ireland,  Boston,  1890. 

Illustrative.  Orpheus:  Shakespeare,  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona,  III,  ii;  Mer- 
chant of  Venice,  V,  i ;  Henry  VIII,  III,  i  (song) ;  Milton,  Lycidas,  ^S  ;  L'Allegro, 
145  ;  11  Penseroso,  105  ;  Pope,  Ode  on  St.  Cecilia's  Day  (Eurydice)  ;  Summer.  Si  ; 
Southey,  Thalaba  (The  Nightingale's  Song  over  the  Grave  of  Orpheus). 

Poems.  Wordsworth,  The  Power  of  Music ;  Shelley,  Orpheus,  a  fragment ; 
lirowning,  Eurydice  and  Orpheus ;  Wm.  Morris,  Orpheus  and  the  Sirens  (Life 
and  Death  of  Jason) ;   L.  Morris,  (Jrpheus,  Eurydice  (Epic  of  Hades);    Lowell, 


5IO  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Eurydice;  E.  Dowden,  Eurydice  ;  W.  B.  Scott,  Eurydice ;  E.  W.  Gosse,  The 
Waking  of  Eurydice;  R.  Buchanan,  Orpheus,  the  Musician;  J.  G.  Saxe,  Travesty 
of  Orpheus  and  Eurydice.  On  Tantalus  and  Sisjrphus,  see  Spenser,  Faerie 
Queene,  i,  5,  31-35;  L-  Morris,  Epic  of  Hades. 

In  Art.  A  ReHef  on  a  tombstone  in  the  National  Museum,  Naples,  of  Mercury, 
Orpheus,  and  Eurydice.  There  is  also  a  copy  in  Paris  of  the  marble  in  the  Villa 
Albani.  Rome.  (See  Fig.  94,  text.)  Paintings:  Fig.  93,  in  text,  by  Sir  Frederick 
Leighton;  by  Robert  Beyschlag;  by  G.  F.  Watts;  The  Story  of  Orpheus,  a 
series  of  ten  paintings,  by  E.  Burne-Jones. 

119-120.  Textual.  Troy  :  the  capital  of  Troas  in  Asia  Minor,  situated  between 
the  rivers  Scamander  and  Simois.  Famous  for  the  siege  conducted  by  the  Greeks 
under  Agamemnon,  Menelaus,  etc.  (See  Chap.  XXII.)  Amymone :  a  fountain 
of  Argolis.   Enipeus  :  a  river  of  Macedonia. 

Interpretative.  The  monsters  that  wreak  the  vengeance  of  Neptune  are,  of 
course,  his  destructive  storms  and  lashing  waves. 

121.  For  genealogy  of  Pelops,  etc.,  see  Tables  F  and  I.  For  the  misfortunes 
of  the  Pelopidae,  see  193. 

Illustrative  in  Art.  Pelops  and  Ilippodamia  ;  vase  pictures  (Monuments  inedits, 
Rome,  and  Paris).    East  pediment,  Temple  of  Zeus,  Olympia. 

123-124.  Textual.  Cephalus,  the  son  of  Mercury  (Hermes)  and  Herse,  is 
irretrievably  confounded  with  Cephalus,  the  son  of  Deion  and  grandson  of 
.'Eolus  I.  The  former  should,  strictly,  be  regarded  as  the  lover  of  Aurora 
(Eos) ;  the  latter  is  the  husband  of  Procris,  and  the  great-grandfather  of  Ulysses. 
(See  Tables  H,  I,  and  O  (4).) 

Interpretative.  Procris  is  the  dewdrop  (from  Greek  F/v.r,  'dew')  which  reflects 
the  shining  rays  of  the  sun.  The  '"  head  of  the  day,"  or  the  rising  sun,  Cephalus, 
is  also  wooed  by  Aurora,  the  Dawn,  but  flies  from  her.  The  Sun  slays  the  dew 
with  the  same  gleaming  darts  that  the  dew  reflects,  or  gives  back  to  him.  Accord- 
ing to  Preller,  Cephalus  is  the  morning-star  beloved  alike  by  Procris,  the  moon, 
and  by  Aurora,  the  dawn.  The  concealment  of  Procris  in  the  forest  and  her 
death  would,  then,  signify  the  paling  of  the  moon  before  the  approaching  day. 
Hardly  so  probable  as  the  former  explanation. 

Illustrative.  Aurora:  Spenser,  Faerie  Queene,  i,  2,  7;  i,  4,  16;  Shakespeare, 
Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  III,  ii ;  Romeo  and  Juliet,  I,  i;  Milton,  Paradise  Lost, 
5,  6,  "  Now  Morn,  her  ro.sy  steps  in  the  eastern  clime  Advancing,"  etc.;  L' Allegro, 
19;  Landor,  Gebir,  "Now  to  Aurora  borne  by  dappled  steeds,  The  sacred  gates 
of  orient  pearl  and  gold  .  .  .  Expanded  slow,"  etc.  Cephalus  and  Procris :  in 
Moore,  Legendary  Ballads ;  Shakespeare,  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  "  Shafalus 
and  Procrus  " ;  A.  Dobson,  The  Death  of  Procris. 

In  Art.  Aurora  :  Figs.  97  and  99,  as  in  text ;  paintings,  by  Guido  Reni,  as  Fig. 
gS  in  text,  and  by  J.  L.  llamon,  and  Guercino.  Procris  and  Cephalus,  by  Turner. 
l.'.Aurore  et  Cephale,  painted  by  P.  Guerin,  iSio,  engraved  by  F.  Forster,  1821. 

125.  Textual.  Cimmerian  country :  a  fabulous  land  in  the  far  west,  near 
Hades ;  or,  perhaps,  in  the  north,  for  the  people  dwell  by  the  ocean  that  is  never 


COMMENTARY 


511 


visited  by  sunlight  (ndyssey,  'N  '1  ''))■  Other  sons  of 
Somniis  are  Icelus,  who  personates  birds,  beasts,  and 
serpents,  and  Phantasus,  who  assumes  the  forms  of 
rocks,  streams,  and  other  inanimate  things. 

The  accompanying  table  will  indicate  the  connec- 
tions and  descendants  of  Aurora. 

Interpretative.  According  to  one  account,  Ceyx  and 
Halcyone,  by  likening  their  wedded  happiness  to  that 
of  Jupiter  and  Juno,  incurred  the  displeasure  of  the 
gods.  The  myth  springs  from  observation  of  the  habits 
of  the  Halcyon-bird,  which  nests  on  the  strand  and 
is  frequently  bereft  of  its  young  by  the  winter  waves. 
The  comparison  with  the  glory  of  Jupiter  and  Juno  is 
suggested  by  the  splendid  iris  hues  of  the  birds. 
Halcyon  days  have  become  proverbial  as  seasons  of 
calm,  .^olus  I,  the  son  of  Hellen,  is  here  identified 
with  .ffiolus  III,  the  king  of  the  winds.  According  to 
Diodorus,  the  latter  is  a  descendant,  in  the  fifth  gener- 
ation, of  the  former.    (See  Genealogical  Table  I.) 

Illustrative.  Chaucer,  The  Dethe  of  Blaunche ;  E. 
W.  Gosse,  Alcyone  (a  sonnet  in  dialogue)  ;  F.  Tenny- 
son, Halcyone;  Edith  M.  Thomas,  The  Kingfisher; 
Margaret  J.  Preston,  Alcyone.  Morpheus  :  see  Milton, 
II  Penseroso ;  Pope,  Ode  on  St.  Cecilia's  Day. 

126-127.  Interpretative.  Tithonus  may  be  the  day 
in  its  ever-recurring  circuit  of  morning  freshness,  noon 
heat,  final  withering  and  decay  (Preller) ;  or  the  gray 
glimmer  of  the  heavens  overspread  by  the  first  ruddy 
flush  of  morning  (Welcker) ;  or,  as  a  solar  myth,  the 
son  in  his  setting  and  waning,  —  Tithonus  meaning, 
by  derivation,  the  illuminator  (Max  Miiller).  The 
sleep  of  Tithonus  in  his  ocean-bed,  and  his  transfor- 
mation into  a  grasshopper,  would  then  typify  the  pre- 
sumable weariness  and  weakness  of  the  sun  at  night. 

Illustrative.  Spenser,  Epithalamion;  Faerie  Queene, 
I,  11,  51. 

128.  Textual.  Mysia:  province  of  Asia  Minor, 
south  of  the  Propontis,  or  Sea  of  Marmora.  There  is 
some  doubt  about  the  identification  of  the  existing 
statue  with  that  described  by  the  ancients,  and  the 
mysterious  sounds  are  still  more  doubtful.  Yet  there 
is  not  wanting  modern  testimony  to  their  being  still 
audible.  It  has  been  suggested  that  sounds  produced 
by  confined  air  making  its  escape  from  crevices  or 


_D.c  a  —  >, 


W 


-3M 


c  E 


512  THK  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

caverns  in  the  rocks  may  have  given  some  ground  for  the  story.  Sir  Gardner 
Wilkinson,  a  traveler  of  the  highest  authority,  examined  the  statue  itself,  and 
discovered  that  it  was  hollow,  and  that  "  in  the  lap  of  the  statue  is  a  stone,  which, 
on  being  struck,  emits  a  metallic  sound  that  might  still  be  made  use  of  to  deceive 
a  visitor  who  was  predisposed  to  believe  its  powers." 

Interpretative.  Memnon  is  generally  represented  as  of  dark  features,  lighted 
with  the  animation  of  glorious  youth.  He  is  king  of  the  mythical  /Ethiopians  who 
lived  in  the  land  of  gloaming,  where  east  and  west  met,  and  whose  name  signifies 
"  dark  splendor."  His  birth  in  this  borderland  of  light  and  darkness  signifies  either 
his  existence  as  king  of  an  eastern  land  or  his  identity  with  the  young  sun,  and 
strengthens  the  theory  according  to  which  his  father  Tithonus  is  the  gray  glimmer 
of  the  morning  heavens.  The  flocks  of  birds  have  been  explained  as  the  glowing 
clouds  that  meet  in  battle  over  the  body  of  the  dead  sun. 

Illustrative.  Milton,  11  Penseroso ;  Drummond,  Summons  to  Love,  "  Rouse 
Memnon's  mother  from  her  Tithon's  bed  " ;  Akenside,  Pleasures  of  the  Imagi- 
nation (analogy  between  Memnonian  music  and  spiritual  appreciation  of  truth) ; 
1  ,andor,  Miscellaneous  Poems,  59,  "  Exposed  and  lonely  genius  stands.  Like 
Memnon  in  the  Egyptian  sands,"  etc. 

In  Art.    Fig.  loi,  from  a  vase  in  the  Louvre. 

129-130.  Textual.  Doric  pillar:  the  three  styles  of  pillars  in  Greek  archi- 
tecture were  Dorian,  Ionic,  Gorinthian  (see  English  Dictionary).  Trinacria : 
Sicily,  from  its  three  promontories,  .^gon  and  Daphnis:  idyllic  names  of  Sicilian 
shepherds  (see  Idyls  of  Theocritus  and  Virgil's  Eclogues).  Nais  :  a  water-nymph. 
For  Cyclops,  Galatea,  Silenus,  Fauns,  Arethusa,  see  Index.  Compare,  with  the 
conception  of  Stedman's  poem,  Wordsworth's  Power  of  Music. 

Illustrative.  Ben  Jonson,  Pan's  anniversary ;  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  4.  266, 
707  ;  Paradise  Regained,  2,  190  ;  Comus,  176,  26S  ;  Pope,  Autumn,  81  ;  Windsor 
Forest,  37, 183;  Summer,  50;  Dunciad,  3,  no;  Akenside,  Pleasures  of  Imagina- 
tion, "  Fair  Tempe  !  haunt  beloved  of  sylvan  Powers,"  etc. ;  On  Leaving  Holland, 
I,  2.  Poems:  Fletcher,  Song  of  the  Priest  of  Pan,  and  Song  of  Pan  (in  The  Faith- 
ful Shepherdess) ;  Landor,  Pan  and  Pitys,  "  Pan  led  me  to  a  wood  the  other  day," 
etc. ;  Landor,  Cupid  and  Pan ;  R.  Buchanan,  Pan ;  Browning,  Pan  and  Luna ; 
Swinburne,  Pan  and  Thalassius ;  Hon.  Roden  Noel,  Pan,  in  the  Modern  Faust. 
( )f  course  Mrs.  Browning's  Dead  Pan  cannot  be  appreciated  unless  read  as  a 
whole  ;  nor  Schiller's  Gods  of  Greece. 

131.  Fauns.  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  4,  708  ;  10.  573,  597  ;  11.  472,  788  ;  Paradise 
Regained,  2,  257;  Mrs.  Browning,  Flush  or  Faunus  (sonnet).  Dryads:  Pope, 
Moral  Essays,  4,  94;  Winter,  12;  Collins,  The  Passions;  Keats,  Nightingale, 
Psyche.  Satyrs:  Milton,  Lycidas  ;  Dryden,  Mrs.  Anne  Killigrew,  6;  Hawthorne, 
Marble  Faun. 

In  Art.  Fauns  (sculpture) :  The  Barberini  Faun  (Munich)  ;  the  Drunken  Faun, 
Sleeping  Faun,  Faun  and  Bacchus,  and  Dancing  P^aun  (National  Museum,  Naples) ; 
the  Dancing  Faun  (Lateran,  Rome) ;  the  so-called  Faun  of  Praxiteles  or  Marble 
Faun  (Fig.  106  in  text  —  a  Satyr  —  best  copy  in  the  Capitoline,  Rome).   Pan  and 


COMMENTARY  513 

Apollo:  Graeco-Roman  sculpture  (Museum,  Naples).  Pan :  Fig.  102,  in  text;  and  Fig. 
103,  from  an  original  perhaps  of  the  School  of  Scopas  or  Praxiteles  (Florence). 
Silenus  and  Bacchus  (Glyptothek,  Munich).  Nymphs  (pictures) :  Bouguereau, 
Nymphs  and  Satyr,  and  Nymphs  ;  Burne-Jones,  Nymphs  ;  Giorgione,  Nymphs  pur- 
sued by  a  Satyr.  Satyrs:  Michelangelo  (picture)  (Uffizi,  Florence),  Mask  of  a 
Satyr;  Rubens,  Satyrs  (Munich) ;  Satyrs  (sculpture),  relief  from  theater  of  Diony- 
sus ;  Satyr  playing  a  flute  (Vatican) ;  and  Figs.  103,  104,  and  106-108  in  the  text. 

132-133.  Textual.  Cephissus :  four  rivers  in  Phocis,  Attica,  and  Argolis  bear 
this  name.    The  most  famous  runs  near  Athens. 

Illustrative.  Echo:  Chaucer,  Romaunt  of  the  Rose,  1468  ef  seq. ;  Spenser,  Pro- 
thalamion  ;  Milton,  Comus,  237  ;  Collins,  The  Passions.  Poems:  L.  Morris  (Epic  of 
Hades),  Narcissus ;  Goldsmith,  On  a  Beautiful  Youth,  etc. ;  Cowper,  On  an  Ugly 
Fellow ;  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  4,  449-470  (illus.) ;  and  Comus.  In  Art:  Narcis- 
sus (sculpture),  and  Fig.  109,  in  text  (Museum,  Naples). 

137.  Dryope  (poem),  by  W.  S.  Landor. 

138.  Rhoecus.    Poems  by  Landor,  The  Hamadryad ;  Aeon  and  Rhodope. 

139.  Pomona.  Phillips,  a  poem  on  Cider.  See  Index.  In  Art:  the  painting  by 
J.  E.  Millais. 

Interpretative.  The  various  guises  and  transformations  of  Vertumnus  signify 
the  succession  of  the  seasons  and  the  changing  characteristics  of  each.  The  name 
itself  implies  turning,  or  change. 

140.  Textual.  In  order  to  understand  the  story  of  Ibycus,  it  is  necessarj'  to 
remember,  first,  that  the  theaters  of  the  ancients  were  immense  fabrics,  capable 
of  containing  from  ten  to  thirty  thousand  spectators,  and  as  they  were  used  only 
on  festal  occasions  and  admission  was  free  to  all,  they  were  usually  filled.  They 
were  without  roofs  and  open  to  the  sky,  and  performances  were  in  the  daytime. 
Secondly,  that  the  appalling  representation  of  the  Furies  is  not  exaggerated  in 
the  story.  It  is  fabled  that  ^schylus,  the  tragic  poet,  having  on  one  occasion 
represented  the  Furies  in  a  chorus  of  fifty  performers,  the  terror  of  the  spectators 
was  such  that  many  fainted  and  were  thrown  into  convulsions,  and  the  magistrates 
forbade  a  like  representation  for  the  future  (Pollux,  4,  no).  Usually  the  chorus 
in  a  single  tragedy  consisted  of  only  fifteen  performers. 

Illustrative.  On  the  Furies  see  C.  49.  On  Ibycus  see  translation  of  Schiller's 
Cranes  of  Ibycus,  by  E.  A.  Bowring. 

141.  Textual.  The  adventures  of  the  water-divinities  turn  largely  on  the  idea 
of  metamorphosis,  which  would  readily  be  suggested  to  the  imaginative  mind  by 
contemplation  of  the  ever-changing  aspect  of  fountain,  stream,  lake,  or  ocean. 
For  genealogies  of  water-deities,  see  Table  C. 

Interpretative.  The  Cyclops,  Polyphemus,  does  not  possess  much  in  common 
with  Steropes,  Brontes,  and  Arges,  the  offspring  of  Uranus  and  Gaea,  save  his  one 
eye  and  his  monstrous  size.  The  sons  of  Gaea  are  personifications  of  thunder  and 
lightning;  Polyphemus  is  the  heavy  vapor  that  rolls  its  clouds  along  the  hillside. 
The  clouds  are  the  sheep  that  he  pastures ;  the  sun  glowering  through  the  vapor 
is  his  single  eye  (Cox).    More  probably  he  is  a  mere  giant  of  folklore. 


514  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Illustrative.  John  Gay,  Song  of  Polypheme  (in  Acis  and  Galatea) ;  A.  Dobson, 
A  Tale  of  Polypheme ;  R.  Buchanan,  Polypheme's  Passion ;  Shelley,  The  Cyclops 
of  Euripides ;  Translations  of  Theocritus  by  Mrs.  Browning  and  by  Calverley ; 
I.  S.  Blackie,  Galatea;  B.  W.  Procter,  The  Death  of  Acis.  See  also  on  the 
Cyclops,   Shakespeare,  Titus  Andronicus,  IV,  iii ;  Hamlet,  II,  ii. 

In  Art.  Fig.  112,  text;  Carracci's  frescoes  in  the  Farnese  Palace,  Rome,  of 
Polyphemus,  Acis  and  Galatea ;  Claude  Lorrain's  painting.  Evening,  Acis  and 
Galatea  ;  Raphael's  Triumph  of  Galatea. 

142.  Textual.  For  descent  of  Glaucus,  see  Tables  G  and  I.  For  Scylla's 
descent,  see  Table  C.    See  Keats,  Endymion,  Bk.  3. 

Interpretative.  Glaucus  is  explained  by  some  as  the  calm  gleaming  sea ;  by 
others,  as  the  angry  sea  that  reflects  the  lowering  heavens  (see  Roscher,  p.  1690). 
Scylla  is  a  personification  of  treacherous  currents  and  shallows  among  jagged 
cliffs  and  hidden  rocks. 

144.  For  genealogy  of  Ino,  see  Table  E.  "  Leucothea  waked,  and  with  fresh 
dews  embalmed  The  Earth"  (Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  11,  135). 

145.  Cyrene  was  sister  to  Daphne.  Honey  must  first  have  been  known  as  a 
wild  product,  the  bees  building  their  structures  in  hollow  trees,  or  holes  in  the 
rocks,  or  any  similar  cavity  that  chance  offered.  Thus  occasionally  the  carcass  of 
a  dead  animal  would  be  occupied  by  the  bees  for  that  purpose.  It  was  no  doubt 
from  some  such  incident  that  the  superstition  arose  that  bees  were  engendered 
by  the  decaying  flesh  of  the  animal.  Virgil  assigns  to  Proteus  the  isle  of  Car- 
pathus,  between  Crete  and  Rhodes ;  Homer,  the  isle  of  Pharus,  near  the 
river  Nile. 

Illustrative.  See  C.  50.  Proteus,  a  poem  by  R.  Buchanan.  On  Aristaeus, 
Cowper's  Task,  comparison  of  the  ice-palace  of  Empress  Anne  of  Russia  with 
Cyrene's  palace.  Milton  probably  thought  of  Cyrene  in  describing  Sabrina 
(Comus).    He  calls  Proteus  "  the  Carpathian  Wizard." 

146-147.  Textual.  Acheloiis :  the  largest  river  in  Greece,  rose  in  Mount  Lac- 
mon,  flowed  between  Acarnania  and  ,Etolia,  and  emptied  into  the  Ionian  Sea.  It 
was  honored  over  all  Greece.  Calydon ;  a  city  of  ^Etolia,  famed  for  the  Caly- 
donian  Hunt.  Parthenope,  see  238.  Ligea  (Ligeia) :  the  shrill-sounding  maiden  ; 
here  a  Siren ;  sometimes  a  Dryad. 

Interpretative.  Even  among  the  ancients  such  stories  as  this  were  explained 
on  a  physical  basis :  the  river  Acheloiis  flows  through  the  realm  of  Dejanira, 
hence  Acheloiis  loves  Dejanira.  When  the  river  winds  it  is  a  snake,  when  it 
roars  it  is  a  bull,  when  it  overflows  its  banks  it  puts  forth  new  horns.  Hercules  is 
supposed  to  have  regulated  the  course  of  the  stream  by  confining  it  within  a  new 
and  suitable  channel.  At  the  same  time  the  old  channel,  redeemed  from  the 
stream,  subjected  to  cultivation,  and  blossoming  with  flowers,  might  well  be  called 
a  /lom  of  plenty.  There  is  another  account  of  the  origin  of  the  Cornucopia.  Jupiter 
at  his  birth  was  committed  by  his  mother  Rhea  to  the  care  of  the  daughters  of 
Melisseus,  a  Cretan  king.  They  fed  the  infant  deity  with  the  milk  of  the  goat 
Amalthea.   Jupiter,  breaking  off  one  of  the  horns  of  the  goat,  gave  it  to  his  nurses, 


1 

3ni8 


I 
loneus 


\ 1 

elias  Pheres        i4Lson       Amythaon 


I  1  I  I  Jason  i I 

■adne    Acastus    Alcestis  =  Admetus                        Bias  Melampus 

I                                                                            =  Pero  (the  Prophet) 

Laodamia                                                             I  I 

(Protesilaiis)                                                                   Talaiis  Antiphates     Thestius 

I  I                     I 

OVcles  ::=  Hypermnestra 


Adrastus         Eriphyle  =  AmphiaraUs 

(2)  ^.thra  1 

The  Hyades  Alcmieon      Amphilochus 


=;  Arsinoe 


3)  Hesperis 
he  Hesperides 


■4)  Sterope  I 
I 
Maia  =  Jove 
I 
Mercury 


Taiu.k  !.   The  Ra 


COMMENTARY 


515 


nnrl  enrlowed  it  with  the  power  of  becoming  filled  with  whatever  the  possessor 
inighl   wish. 

Illustrative.  The  name  Amallhca  is  given  also  to  the  mother  of  Racchus.  It 
is  thus  used  by  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  4,  275  : 

That  Nyseian  isle, 
Girt  with  the  river  Triton,  where  old  Cham, 
Whom  Gentiles  Amnion  call  and  Libyan  Jove, 
Hid  Amalthea,  and  her  florid  son, 
Voung  Bacchus,  from  his  stepdame  Rhea's  eye. 

See  also  Milton,  Paradise  Regained,  2,  356. 

148.  For  the  general  genealogy  of  the  race  of  Inachus,  see  Table  D.  For  the 
general  race  of  lapetus,  Deucalion,  Hellen,  .^olus,  ^tolus,  etc.,  see  below,  Table 
I  (based  in  part  on  the  table  given  in  Roscher,  article  Deukalion).  For  the  de- 
scendants of  Agenor,  see  Table  E.  For  the  houses  of  Minos  and  of  Labdacus,  see 
Tables  L  and  N.  For  the  descendants  of  Belus  (house  of  Danaiis),  see  Tables  I 
and  J  ;  of  Cecrops  and  Erechtheus,  Table  M. 

(1)  The  race  of  Inachus 

I  \  I 

The  descendants  of  Pelasgus,  of  Belus,  of  Agenor 

I  I 

House  of  Danaiis  Houses  of  Minos  and  Labdacus 

(2)  The  race  of  Deucalion  (Table  G),  and  of  his  son,  Hellen 

I 
The  descendants  of  .lEolus,    of  Dorus,     of  Xuthus, 
I  I 

I  (Achaeans  and  lonians) 

The  descendants  of  Endymion,  Perieres,  Deion,  Sisyphus,  Cretheus,  Athanias 

(3)  The  descendants  of  .ffitolus,  son  of  Endymion  (Table  K) 

Houses  of  Porthaon  and  Thestius 

(4)  The  race  of  Cecrops 

1 
'£he  descendants  of  Erichthonius 
I 
House  of  Pandion  and  .tgeus 


5l6  11  IK  CLASSIC   MYTHS 

149-154.  Textual.    Seriphus :  an  island  nf  the    F.gean. 
The  Tlouse  <if  I'anaiis  is  ,is  follows: 


TARr.F,  J.    TiiF.   House  ok  Danaus 

Inachus 
I 

lo  :=  Jupiter 

Epaphus 

.1 
Libya  ^  Poseidon  (Neptune) 


Agenor  Belus  of  Egypt 


Cadmus    Europa  .Egyptus  Danaus  Cepheus  =  Cassiopea 

I  I  I  1      Andromeda  =  Perseus 

49  other  sons     I.ynceus  =  Hypermnestra        .(o  other  daughters  (see  below) 

Abas 

I 
Acrisius 

I 
Danae  —  Jupiter 

Perseus  =  Andromeda 


Perses         Electryon         Alcjeus 
I  I 

Jupiter  =  Alcmene  =  Amphitryon 

Hercules        Iphicles 


Interpretative.  While  Danaus  is,  in  fact,  a  native  mythical  hero  of  Argos,  the 
story  of  his  arrival  from  Egypt  is  probably  an  attempt  to  explain  the  influence  of 
Egyptian  civilization  upon  the  Greeks.  The  name  Danaus  means  drought,  and 
may  refer  to  the  frequently  dry  condition  of  the  soil  of  Argos.  The  fifty  daughters 
of  Danaiis  would  then  be  the  nymphs  of  the  many  springs  which  in  season  refresh 
the  land  of  Argolis.  Their  suitors,  the  fifty  sons  of  .^gyptus,  would  be  the  streams 
of  Argolis  that  in  the  rainy  months  threaten  to  overflow  their  banks.  But  the 
springs  by  vanishing  during  the  hot  weather  deprive  the  streams  of  water  and 
consequently  of  life.  That  is  to  say,  when  the  sources  (Danaids)  choose  to  stop 
supplies,  the  heads  of  the  streams  (the  fifty  youths  of  Argolis)  are  cut  off.  The 
reference  to  /Egyptus  and  the  sons  of  .-Egyptus  would  indicate  a  reminiscence 
of  the  Nile  and  its  tributaries,  alternately  overflowing  and  exhausted.  The  unsuc- 
cessful toil  of  the  Danaids  in  Tartarus  may  have  been  suggested  by  the  sandy 
nature  of  the  Argive  soil,  and  the  leaky  nature  of  the  springs,  now  high,  now 
low.  Or  it  may  typify,  simply,  any  incessant,  fruitless  labor.  The  name  Hyper- 
mnestra  signifies  constancy  and  lo7!e.  Danae,  the  daughter  of  Acrisius,  has  been 
regarded  as  the  dry  earth,  which  under  the  rains  of  the  golden  springtime  bursts 
into  verdure  and  bloom;  or  as  the  dark  depths  of  the  earth  ;^  or  as  the  dawn, 
from  which,  shot  through  with  the  golden  rays  of  heaven,  the  youthful  Sun  is 


COMMENTARY 


517 


Iiorn.l  Advocates  of  the  last  theory  would  understand  the  voyage  of  Danae  and 
Perseus  as  the  tossing  of  the  sunbeams  on  the  waters  of  the  eastern  horizon. 
The  young  Sun  would  next  overcome  the  Gray-women,  forms  of  the  gloaming. 
;ind  then  slay  with  his  sword  of  light  the  black  cloud  of  the  heavenly  \ault,  the 
Gorgon,  whose  aspect  is  night  and  death. 

The  Graeae  and  the  Gorgons  may,  with  greater  probability,  be  taken  as  per- 
sonifications of  the  hidden  horrors  of  the  unknown  night-enveloped  ocean  and 
the  misty  horizon  whence  storms  come.  In  that  case  the  Graeae  will  be  the  gray 
clouds,  and  their  one  tooth  (or  one  eye)  the  harmless  gleam  of  the  lightning;  the 
Gorgons  will  be  the  heavy  thunderclouds,  and  their  petrifying  gaze  the  swift  and 
fatal  lightning  flash. 

But  there  are  still  others  who  find  in  the  Gorgon  Medusa  the  wan  visage  of 
the  moon,  empress  of  the  night,  slain  by  the  splendor  of  morning.  The  sandals 
of  Hermes  have,  accordingly,  been  explained  as  the  morning  breeze,  or  even  as 
the  chariot  of  the  sun.  The  invisible  helmet  may  be  the  clouds  under  which  the  sun 
disappears.  Compare  the  cloak  of  darkness  in  the  Three  Daughters  of  King 
O'Hara ;  and  the  Sword  of  Sharpness  in  the  Weaver's  Son  and  the  Giant  of  White 
Hill  (Curtin,  Myths  of  Ireland). 

Andromeda  is  variously  deciphered :  the  tender  dawn,  which  a  storm-cloud 
would  obscure  and  devour ;  the  moon,  which  darkness,  as  a  dragon,  threatens  to 
swallow ;  or  some  historic  character  that  has  passed  into  myth.  C'ompare  the  con- 
tests of  Perseus  and  the  Dragon,  Apollo  and  Pytho,  Hercules  and  the  Serpents, 
Cadmus  and  the  Dragon  of  Mars,  St.  George  and  the  Dragon,  Siegfried  and  the 
Worm  (Fafnir).  For  a  Gaelic  Andromeda  and  Perseus,  see  The  Thirteenth  Son 
of  the  King  of  Erin  (Curtin,  Myths  of  Ireland). 

Perseus'  flight  to  the  Gardens  of  the  Hesperides  suggests,  naturally,  the  circuit 
of  the  sun  toward  the  flushing  western  horizon ;  and,  of  course,  he  would  here 
behold  the  giant  Atlas,  who,  stationed  where  heaven  and  earth  meet,  sustains 
upon  his  shoulders  the  celestial  vault. 

The  Doom  of  Acrisius  reminds  one  of  that  of  Hyacinthus.  The  quoit  suggests 
the  rays  of  the  sun,  and  the  name  Acrisius  may  be  construed  to  mean  the  "  con- 
fused or  gloomy  heavens"  (Roscher,  Preller,  Miiller,  etc.). 

Illustrative.  "  The  starred  /Ethiop  queen  "  :  Cassiopea  (Cassiepea,  or  Cassiope) 
became  a  constellation.  The  sea-nymphs,  however,  had  her  placed  in  a  part  of  the 
heavens  near  the  pole,  where  she  is  half  the  time  held  with  her  head  downward 
to  teach  her  humility. 

Danae.  Tennyson,  Princess,  "  Now  lies  the  Earth  all  Danae  to  the  stars.  And 
all  thy  heart  lies  open  unto  me."  Translations  of  Simonides'  Lament  of  Danae, 
by  W.  C.  Bryant  and  by  J.  H.  Frere.  Danaid  :  Chaucer,  Legende  of  Good  Women, 
2561  (Hypermnestra  and  Lynceus). 

Gorgons  and  Medusa.    Spenser,  Epithalamion,  "And  stand  astonished  like  to 
those  which  read  Medusa's  mazeful  head";  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  2.  611,  628, 
<'omus  (on  /Egisand  Gorgon)  ;  Drummond,  The  Statue  of  Medusa;  Gray,  Hymn 
1  This  dawn  theory  is  certainly  far-fetched. 


5l8  'I'lIK  CT-ASSIC    MN'IllS 

to  Adversity;  Armstrong.  The  Art  of  I'rescrving  Health;  D.  G.  Rossetti,  Aspects 
Medusa;  L.  Morris,  in  The  F.pic  of  Hades:  Thomas  Gordon  Hake,  The  Infant 
Medusa  (a  sonnet)  ;  T,.  I,ee-Hamilton.  The  New  Medusa  :  T,adv  Gharlotte  Elliot, 
Medusa. 

Andromeda.  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  3,  559  (the  constellation) ;  L.  Morris  in  The 
Epic  of  Hades;  W.  Morris,  Doom  of  King  Acrisius;  !•"-.  Dowden,  Andromeda 
(The  Heroines). 

Atlas.  Shakespeare.  3  Henry  VI.  5,  1  :  Milton.  Paradise  Lost,  4,987  ;  11,402, 
comparison  of  Satan  and  Atlas. 

In  Art.  Fig.  116,  in  text:  vase  in  the  Hermitage,  Petrograd.  Titian's  paint- 
ing, Danae  and  the  Shower  of  Gold;  Correggio's  Danae.  Ancient  sculpture:  a 
Danai'd  in  the  \'atican  ;  the  Danai'ds  on  an  altar  in  the  Vatican  (P'ig.  115,  in  text). 

Perseus  and  Andromeda.  Figs,  iiq-i  Ji,  and  opp.  p.  212,  in  text;  painting  hy 
Rubens  (Berlin).  Sculpture:  Henvenuto  Cellini's  Perseus  (Loggia  de'  Lanzi, 
Florence),  and  Perseus  saving  Andromeda;  Canova's  Perseus  (Vatican). 

Medusa.  Graeco-Roman  sculpture:  Head  of  Dying  Medusa  (Villa  Ludovisi, 
Rome);  the  beautiful  Medusa  Rondanini  in  the  (Jlyptothek,  Munich  (Figs.  117 
and  iiS,  text);  numerous  illustrations  of  abhorrent  Gorgons  in  Roscher,  p.  1707 
//  si-i/..  from  vases,  seals,  marbles,  etc. 

Modern  Painting.    Leonardo  da  \  inci.  Head  of  Medusa. 

155.   Textual.    The  descent  of  I'.ellerophon  is  as  follows.    (See  also  Table  I.) 

lleucalion  =  Pyrili.i 
I 
Helleu 

I 
-Kolus  I  Atlas 

I  I 

.Sisyphus  =  Merope  (Pleiad) 

I 

( ilaucus 

I 

r.ellerophdn 

Lycia:  in  Asia  Minor.  The  fountain  Hippocrene,  on  the  Muses'  mountain, 
Helicon,  was  opened  Ijy  a  kick  from  the  hoof  of  I'cgasus.  This  horse  belongs  to 
the  Muses,  and  has  from  time  immemorial  been  ridden  by  the  poets.  From  the 
story  of  Bellerophon  being  unconsciously  the  bearer  of  his  own  death-warrant, 
the  expression  "  Bellerophontic  letters"  arose,  to  describe  any  species  of  com- 
munication which  a  person  is  made  the  bearer  of.  containing  matter  prejudicial  10 
himself.    Aleian  field:  a  district  in  Cilicia  (.\sia  Minor). 

Interpretative.  Bellerophon  is  either  "  he  who  appears  in  the  clouds,"  or  "  he 
who  slays  the  cloudy  monster."  In  either  sense  we  have  another  sun-myth  and 
sun-hero.  He  is  the  son  of  (ilaucus,  who,  whether  he  be  descended  from  Sisyphus 
or  from  Neptune,  is  undoubtedly  a  sea-god.  His  horse,  sprung  from  Medusa,  the 
thundercloud,  when  she  falls  under  the  sword  of  the  sun,  is  Pegasus,  the  rain-cloud. 
In  his  contest  with  the  Chimaera  we  have  a  repetition  of  the  combat  of  Perseus 
and  the  sea  monster.  Bellerophon  is  a  heavenly  knight  errant  who  slays  the  powers 
of  storm  and  darkness.   The  earth,  struck  by  his  horse's  hoof,  bubbles  into  springs 


COMMENTARY 


519 


(Rapp  in  Roscher,  and  Max  Miiller).  At  the  end  of  the  day,  falhng  from  heaven, 
this  knight  of  the  sun  walks  in  melancholy  the  pale  fields  of  the  twilight. 

Illustrative.  Wm.  Morris,  Bellerophon  in  Argos  and  in  Lycia  (Earthly  Paradise) ; 
Longfellow,  Pegasus  in  Pound ;  Bowring's  translation  of  Schiller's  Pegasus  in 
Harness.  Milton  (Bellerophon  and  Pegasus),  Paradise  Lost,  7,  i  ;  Spenser,  "Then 
whoso  will  with  virtuous  wing  assay  To  mount  to  heaven,  on  Pegasus  must  ride, 
And  with  sweet  Poet's  verse  be  glorified";  also  Faerie  Queene,  i,  9,  21  ;  Shake- 
speare, Taming  of  the  Shrew,  IV,  iv  ;  i  Henry  IV,  IV,  i ;  Henrj'  V,  III,  vii;  Pope, 
Essay  on  Criticism,  1 50  ;  Dunciad,  3,  162  ;  Burns,  To  John  Taylor ;  Young's  Night 
Thoughts,  Vol.  2  (on  Bellerophontic  letters).  Hippocrene  :  Keats,  To  a  Nightingale. 

In  Art.  Bellerophon  and  Pegasus,  vase  picture  (Monuments  inedits,  etc.,  Rome 
and  Paris,  1839-1874) ;  ancient  relief,  Fig.  122,  in  text. 

156-162.  For  genealogy  of  Hercules,  see  Table  J.  Rhadamanthus :  brother 
of  Minos.  (See  Index.)  Thespiae  and  Orchomenos :  towns  of  Boeotia.  Nemea : 
in  Argolis,  near  Mycenae.    Stymphalian  lake  :  in  Arcadia. 

Pillars  of  Hercules.  The  chosen  device  of  Charles  V  of  Germany  represented 
the  Pillars  of  Hercules  entwined  by  a  scroll  that  bore  his  motto,  "  Plus  Ultra  " 
(still  farther).  This  device,  imprinted  upon  the  German  dollar,  has  been  adopted 
as  the  sign  of  the  American  dollar  ($).  Dollar,  by  the  way,  means  coin  of  the 
valley,  —  German  Thai.  The  silver  of  the  first  dollars  came  from  Joachimsthal  in 
Bohemia,  about  1518.  Hesperides :  the  western  sky  at  sunset.  The  apples  may 
have  been  suggested  by  stories  of  the  oranges  of  Spain.  The  Cacus  myth  is 
thoroughly  latinized,  but  of  Greek  origin.  The  Aventine :  one  of  the  hills  of 
Rome.  Colchis :  in  Asia,  east  of  the  Euxine  and  south  of  Caucasus.  Mysia : 
province  of  Asia  Minor,  north  of  Lydia.  The  river  Phasis  flows  through  Colchis 
into  the  Euxine.  For  genealogy  of  Laomedon,  see  Table  O  (5).  Pylos :  it  is 
doubtful  what  city  is  intended.  There  were  two  such  towns  in  Elis,  and  one  in 
Messenia.  The  word  xnt^v\%  gate  (see  Iliad,  5,  397),  and  in  the  case  of  Hercules 
there  may  be  some  reference  to  his  journey  to  the  gate  or  Pylos  of  Hades.  For 
Alcestis,  see  83;  for  Prometheus,  15  ;  for  the  family  of  Dejanira,  Table  K.  Alcides  : 
i.e.  Hercules,  descendant  of  Alcaeus.  CEchalia  :  in  Thessaly  or  in  Euboea.  Mount 
CEta :  in  Thessaly.  The  Pygmies :  a  nation  of  dwarfs,  so  called  from  a  Greek 
word  meaning  the  cubit,  or  measure  of  about  thirteen  inches,  which  was  said  to 
be  the  height  of  these  people.  They  lived  near  the  sources  of  the  Nile,  or,  accord- 
ing to  others,  in  India.  Homer  tells  us  that  the  cranes  used  to  migrate  every 
winter  to  the  Pygmies'  country,  where,  attacking  the  cornfields,  they  precipitated 
war.  H.  M.  Stanley,  in  his  last  African  expedition,  discovered  a  race  of  diminutive 
men  that  correspond  fairly  in  appearance  with  those  mentioned  by  Homer.  The 
Cercopes :  the  subject  of  a  comic  poem  by  Homer,  and  of  numerous  grotesque 
representations  in  Greek  literature  and  sculpture. 

Interpretative.  All  myths  of  the  sun  represent  that  luminary  as  struggling 
against  and  overcoming  monsters,  or  performing  other  laborious  tasks  in  obedi- 
ence to  the  orders  of  soTie  tryant  of  inferior  spirit,  but  of  legal  authority.  Since 
the  life  of  Hercules  is  composed  of  such  tasks,  it  is  easy  to  class  him  with  other 


520  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

sun-heroes.  But  to  construe  his  whole  history  and  all  his  feats  as  symbolic  of  the 
sun's  progress  through  the  heavens,  beginning  with  the  labors  performed  in  his 
eastern  home  and  ending  with  the  capture  of  Cerberus  in  the  underworld  beyond 
the  west,  or  to  construe  the  subjects  of  the  twelve  labors  as  consciously  recalling  the 
twelve  signs  of  the  Zodiac  is  not  only  unwarranted,  but  absurd.  To  some  extent 
Hercules  is  a  sun-hero ;  to  some  extent  his  adventures  are  fabulous  history ;  to  a 
greater  extent  both  he  and  his  adventures  are  the  product  of  generations  of 
aesthetic,  but  primitive  and  fanciful,  invention.  The  same  statement  holds  true  of 
nearly  all  the  heroes  and  heroic  deeds  of  mythology.  As  a  matter  of  interest,  it 
may  be  noted  that  the  serpents  that  attacked  Hercules  in  his  cradle  are  explained 
as  powers  of  darkness  which  the  sun  destroys,  and  the  cattle  that  he  tended,  as 
the  clouds  of  morning.  His  choice  between  pleasure  and  duty  at  the  outset  of 
his  career  enforces,  of  course,  a  lesson  of  conduct.  His  lion's  skin  may  denote 
the  tawny  cloud  which  the  sun  trails  behind  him  as  he  fights  his  way  through  the 
vapors  that  he  overcomes  (Cox).  The  slaughter  of  the  Centaurs  may  be  the  dis- 
sipation of  these  vapors.  His  insanity  may  denote  the  raging  heat  of  the  sun  at 
noonday-  The  Nemean  lion  may  be  a  monster  of  cloud  or  darkness;  the  Hydra, 
a  cloud  that  confines  the  kindly  rains,  or  at  times  covers  the  heavens  with  numer- 
ous necks  and  heads  of  vapor.  The  Cerynean  Stag  may  be  a  golden-tinted  cloud 
that  the  sun  chases ;  and  the  Cattle  of  the  Augean  stables,  clouds  that,  refusing  to 
burst  in  rain,  consign  the  earth  to  drought  and  filth.  The  Erymanthian  boar  and 
the  Cretan  bull  are  probably  varied  forms  of  the  powers  of  darkness ;  so  also  the 
Stamphalian  (StjTnphalian)  birds  and  the  giant  Cacus.  Finally,  the  scene  of  the 
hero's  death  is  a  "  picture  of  a  sunset  in  wild  confusion,  the  multitude  of  clouds 
hurrying  hither  and  thither,  now  hiding,  now  revealing  the  mangled  body  of  the 
sun."  In  this  way  Cox,  and  other  interpreters  of  myth,  would  explain  the  series. 
Hut  while  the  explanations  are  entertaining  and  poetic,  their  very  plausibility 
should  suggest  caution  in  accepting  them.  It  is  not  safe  to  construe  all  the  details 
of  a  mythical  career  in  terms  of  any  one  theory.  The  more  noble  side  of  the 
character  of  Hercules  presents  itself  to  the  moral  understanding,  as  worthy  of 
consideration  and  admiration.  The  dramatist  Euripides  has  portrayed  him  as  a 
great-hearted  hero,  high-spirited  and  jovial,  rejoicing  in  the  vigor  of  manhood, 
comforting  the  downcast,  wrestling  with  Death  and  overcoming  him,  restoring 
happiness  where  sorrow  had  obtained.  No  grander  conception  of  manliness  has  in 
modern  times  found  expression  in  poetry  than  that  of  the  Hercules  in  Browning's 
transcript  of  Euripides,  Balaustion's  Adventure. 

Illustrative.  Lang's  translation  of  the  Lityerses  song  (Theocritus,  Idyl  X).  The 
song,  like  the  Linus  song,  is  of  early  origin  among  the  laborers  in  the  field.  For 
Hercules,  see  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  Astrophel  and  Stella;  Spenser,  Faerie  Queene, 
I,  1 1,  27  ;  Shakespeare,  Merchant  of  Venice,  II,  i ;  III,  ii ;  Taming  of  the  Shrew, 
I,  ii ;  Coriolanus,  IV,  i ;  Hamlet,  I,  ii ;  Much  Ado  About  Nothing,  II,  i ;  III,  iii ; 
King  John,  II,  i;  Titus  Andronicus,  IV,  ii ;  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  IV,  x; 
I  Henry  VI,  IV,  vii;  Pope,  Satires,  5,  17  ;  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  11,  4io(Geryon). 
Amazons:   Shakespeare,  King  John,  V,  ii ;  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  II,  ii; 


COMMENTARV 


521 


I   Henry  VI,  I,  iv ;  3   Henry  VI,  I,  iv ;   Pope,   Rape  of  the  Lock,  3.  G-  ;  Hylas; 
Pope,  Autumn  ;  Dunciad,  c,  336. 

Poems.  S.  Rogers,  on  the  Torso  of  Hercules ;  Browning,  Balaus'ion's  Adventure, 
and  Aristophanes'  Apology ;  L.  Morris,  Dejaneira  (Epic  of  Hades) ;  William  Morris, 
The  Golden  Apples  (Earthly  Paradise) ;  J.  H.  Frere's  translation  of  Euripides' 
Hercules  Furens,  and  Plumptre's,  or  R.  Whitelaw's  (1883),  of  Sophocles'  Women 
of  Trachis ;  George  Cabot  Lodge,  Herakles.  Pygmies :  James  Beattie,  Battle  of 
the  Pygmies  and  the  Cranes.  Dejanira  :  Fragment  of  Chorus  of  a  "  Dejaneira,"  by 
M.  Arnold.  Hylas :  Moore  (song),  ''When  Hylas  was  sent  with  his  urn  to  the 
fount,"  etc. ;  Bayard  Taylor,  Hylas ;  R.  C.  Rogers,  Hylas ;  translation  of  Theoc- 
ritus, Idyl  XIII,  by  C.  S.  Calverley,  1869.  Daphnis :  Theocritus,  Idyl  I.  Accord- 
ing to  this,  Daphnis  so  loves  Xais  that  he  defies  Aphrodite  to  make  him  love 
again.  She  does  so,  but  he  fights  against  the  new  passion,  and  dies  a  victim 
of  the  implacable  goddess.  This  song  is  sung  by  Thyrsis.  Also  on  Daphnis, 
read  E.  Gosse's  poem,  The  Gifts  of  the  Muses. 

In  Art.  Fig.  65,  of  a  statue  reproducing  the  style  of  Scopas  ;  figs.  123-129,  and 
opp.  p.  226,  in  text;  Heracles  in  the  eastern  pediment  of  the  Parthenon  (.-■); 
the  Torso  Belvedere;  Farnese  Hercules  (National  Museum,  Naples);  Hercules 
in  the  metopes  of  the  Temple  of  Silenus  (Museum,  Palermo) ;  the  infant  Her- 
cules strangling  a  Serpent  (antique  sculpture),  in  the  Uffizi  at  Florence ;  C.  G. 
Gleyre's  painting,  Hercules  at  the  Feet  of  Omphale  (Louvre) ;  Bandinelli  (sculp- 
ture), Hercules  and  Cacus ;  Giovanni  di  Bologna  (sculpture),  Hercules  and  Cen- 
taur; Amazon  (ancient  sculpture),  in  the  Vatican;  and  Figs.  162,  185  and  opp. 
p.  306,  in  text;  Centaur  (sculpture),  Capitol,  Rome;  the  Mad  Heracles,  vase 
picture  (Monuments  inedits,  Rome  and  Paris,  1839-1878). 

163-167.  For  the  descent  of  Jason  from  Deucalion,  see  Table  G.  lolcos :  a 
town  in  Thessaly.  Lemnos :  in  the  ^Egean,  near  Tenedos.  Phineus  :  a  son  of 
Agenor,  or  of  Poseidon.    For  the  family  of  Medea,  see  Table  H. 

Interpretative.  Argo  means  su'//i,  or  %vhite,  or  commemorates  the  ship-builder, 
or  the  city  of  Argos.  The  Argo-myth  rests  upon  a  mixtui^e  of  traditions  of  the 
earliest  seafaring  and  of  the  course  of  certain  physical  phenomena.  So  far  as  the 
tradition  of  primitive  seafaring  is  concerned,  it  may  refer  to  some  half-piratical 
expedition,  the  rich  spoils  of  which  might  readily  be  known  as  the  Golden  Fleece. 
So  far  as  the  physical  tradition  is  concerned,  it  may  refer  to  the  course  of  the 
year  (the  Ram  of  the  Golden  Fleece  being  the  fructifying  clouds  that  come  and 
go  across  the  .ligean)  or  to  the  process  of  sunrise  and  sunset  (?)  :  Helle  being  the 
glimmering  twilight  that  sinks  into  the  sea  :  Phrixus  (in  Greek  Phrixos).  the  radiant 
sunlight;  the  voyage  of  the  Argo  through  the  Symplegades,  the  nocturnal  journey 
of  the  sun  down  the  west;  the  oak  with  the  Golden  Fleece,  a  symbol  of  the  sunset 
which  the  dragon  of  darkness  guards ;  the  fire-breathing  bulls,  the  advent  of 
morning;  the  offspring  of  the  dragon's  teeth,  an  image  of  the  sunbeams  leaping 
from  eastern  darkness.  Medea  is  a  typical  wise-woman  or  witch  ;  daughter  of 
Hecate  and  granddaughter  of  Asteria,  the  starry  heavens,  she  comes  of  a  family 
skilled  in  magic.  Her  aunt  Circe  was  even  more  powerful  in  necromancy  than  she. 


522  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

The  robe  of  Medea  is  the  fleece  in  another  form.  The  death  of  Creiisa,  also  called 
Glauce,  suggests  that  of  Hercules  (in  the  flaming  sunset?).  Jason  is  no  more  faithful 
to  his  sweetheart  than  other  solar  heroes  —  Hercules,  Perseus,  Apollo  —  are  to 
theirs.  The  sun  must  leave  the  colors  and  glories,  the  twilights  and  the  clouds  of 
to-day,  for  those  of  to-morrow.  See  Roscher,  pp.  530-537.  The  physical  explanation 
is  more  than  commonly  plausible.  But  the  numerous  adventures  of  the  Argonauts 
are  certainly  survivals  of  various  local  legends  that  have  been  consolidated  and 
preserved  in  the  artistic  form  of  the  myth.  Jason,  Diason,  is  another  Zeus,  of  the 
Ionian  race,  beloved  by  Medea,  whose  name,  "  the  counseling  woman,"  suggests 
a  goddess.  Perhaps  Medea  was  a  local  Hera-Demeter,  degraded  to  the  rank  of  a 
heroine.  The  Symplegades  may  be  a  reminiscence  of  rolling  and  clashing  ice- 
bergs ;  the  dove  incident  occurs  in  numerous  ancient  stories  from  that  of  Noah 
down.  If  Medea  be  another  personification  of  morning  and  evening  twilight, 
then  her  dragons  are  rays  of  sunlight  that  precede  her.  More  likely  they  are 
part  of  the  usual  equipage  of  a  witch,  symbolizing  wisdom,  foreknowledge,  swift- 
ness, violence,  and  Oriental  mystery. 

Illustrative.  The  Argo,  see  Theodore  Martin's  translation  of  Catullus,  LXIV 
(Peleus  and  Thetis),  for  the  memorable  launch;  Pope,  St.  Cecilia's  Day.  Jason : 
-Shakespeare,  Merchant  of  Venice,  I,  i;  III,  ii ;  JBson :  Merchant  of  Venice,  V, 
i;  Absyrtus :  2  Henry  VI,  V,  ii.  Poems:  Chaucer,  Legende  of  Good  Women, 
1366  (Ysiphile  and  Medee) ;  W.  Morris,  Life  and  Death  of  Jason;  Frederick 
Tennyson,  .-^ison  and  King  Athamas  (in  Daphne  and  Other  Poems).  Thos. 
Campbell's  translation  of  the  chorus  in  Euripides'  Medea,  beginning  "  Oh,  hag- 
gard queen !  to  Athens  dost  thou  guide  thy  glowing  chariot."  Translations  of 
the  Medea  of  Euripides  have  been  made  by  Augusta  Webster,  1868 ;  by  W.  C. 
Lawton  (Three  Dramas  of  Euripides)  1889;  ^i^^  ^7  Wodhull. 

In  Art.  The  terra-cotta  relief  (Fig.  130,  text)  in  the  British  Museum;  the  reUef 
from  Naples,  now  in  Vienna  (Fig.  131).  Figs.  132  and  133  as  explained  in  text.  Also 
the  splendid  Vengeance  of  Medea  in  the  Louvre  ;  relief  on  a  Roman  sarcophagus. 

168.  Textual. 

Table  K.    The  Descendants  of  ^tolus  (Son  of  Endymion) 

Endymion 

I 
iEtolus 


I 


Calydon       Pleuron 

I  I 

Epicaste  :=  Agenor 


I 1 

Porthaon        Demonice  (Mars) 


Thestius 


I \ \ 1 

Feriboea(i)  =  (Eneus  =  (2)  Althaea        Plexippus        Toxeus  Leda  =  (i)  Tyndareus  (Sparta 

I  =  (2)  Jupiter 


Tydeus  |  | 

I  Meleager         Dejanira  =  Hercules  |  |  I  i 

Diomede  Castor       Clytemnestra        Pollux        Helen 

by  Tyndareus  by  Jupiter 


COMMENTARY  523 

Also,  in  general,  Table  I. 

For  Calydon,  see  Index.  The  Arcadian  Atalanta  was  descended  from  the 
Areas  who  was  son  of  Jupiter  and  Callisto.    (See  Table  D.) 

Interpretative.  Atalanta  is  the  "  unwearied  maiden."  She  is  the  human  counter- 
part of  the  huntress  Diana.  The  story  has  of  course  been  allegorically  explained, 
but  it  bears  numerous  marks  of  local  and  historic  origin. 

Illustrative.  Swinburne,  Atalanta  in  Calydon ;  Margaret  J.  Preston,  The 
Quenched  Branch;  Shakespeare,  2  Henry  IV,  II,  ii ;    2  Henry  VI,   I.  i. 

In  Art.  The  Meleager  (sculpture),  in  the  Vatican;  the  Roman  reliefs  as  in 
text.    The  original  of  Fig.  135  is  in  the  Louvre. 

169.  The  Merope  story  has  been  dramatized  by  Maffei  (1713),  ^'oltaire  (1743), 
Alfieri  (1783),  and  by  others. 

170-171.  C.  S.  Calverley's  The  Sons  of  Leda,  from  Theocritus.  Leda : 
Spenser,  Prothalamion  :  Landor,  Loss  of  Memory.  Talus  :  the  iron  attendant  of 
Artegal,  Spenser,  Faerie  Queene,  5,  i,  12. 

172.  The  Descendants  of  Minos  I.    (See  also  Table  D.) 

Table  L 

Jupiter  =  Europa 
I 
Minos  I  =  I  tone 

I  Helios  =  Perseis 

Lycastus  I  Asteria  =  Parses 

I                           I  \  ^1  I 

Mmos  II  =  Pasiphae         Circe  .Betes  =  Hecate 

I  I 

I i — ' 1  Medea 


Crateus  Phaedra  Ariadne 

I  =  Theseus       =  Theseus 

Aerope 
=  Atreus 


Interpretative.  Discrimination  between  Minos  I  and  Minos  II  is  made  in  the 
text,  but  is  rarely  observed.  Minos,  according  to  Preller,  is  the  solar  king  and 
hero  of  Crete ;  his  wife,  Pasiphae,  is  the  moon  (who  was  worshiped  in  Crete 
under  the  form  of  a  cow) ;  and  the  Minotaur  is  the  lord  of  the  starry  heavens 
which  are  his  labyrinth.  Others  make  Pasiphae,  whose  name  means  shiiier  upon 
all,  the  bright  heaven ;  and  Minos  (in  accordance  with  his  name,  the  Man,  par 
excellence),  the  thinker  and  measurer.  A  lawgiver  on  earth,  the  Homeric  Minos 
readily  becomes  a  judge  in  Hades.  Various  fanciful  interpretations,  such  as 
storm  cloud,  sun,  etc.,  are  given  of  the  bull.  Cox  explains  the  Minotaur  as  night, 
devouring  all  things.  The  tribute  from  Athens  may  suggest  some  early  suzerainty 
in  politics  and  religion  exercised  by  Crete  over  neighboring  lands.  For  Maeander, 
see  Pope,  Rape  of  the  Lock.  5,  65;  Dunciad,  i,  64;  3,  55. 

173.  Interpretative.  Dsedalus  is  a  representative  ot  the  earliest  technical  skill, 
especially  in  wood-cutting,  carving,  and  the  plastic  arts  used  for  industrial  pur- 
poses. His  flight  from  one  land  to  another  signifies  the  introduction  of  inventions 
into  the  countries  concerned.  The  fall  of  Icarus  was  probably  invented  to  explain 
the  name  of  the  Icarian  Sea. 


524 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Illustrative.  Daedalus :  Chaucer,  Hous  of  Fame,  409.  Icarus :  Shakespeare, 
I  Henry  VI,  IV,  vi;  IV,  vii ;  3  Henry  VI,  V,  vi;  poem  on  Icarus  by  Bayard 
Taylor;  travesty  by  J.  G.  Saxe. 

In  Art.  Sculpture:  Fig.  138,  in  text:  Villa  Albani,  Rome;  Canova's  Daedalus 
and  Icarus;  painting  by  J.  M.  Vien ;  also  by  A.  Pisano  (Campanile,  Florence). 

174.  The  descendants  of  Erichthonius  are  as  follows : 


Table  M 


Jupiter 

Tantalus 

I 
Pelops 


Erichthonius 

I 
Pandion  I 


Pittheus 


Atreus 


Thvestes 


Erechtheus        Procne         Philomela 


Pandion  II 


=  i)  Ariadne 
d.  of  Minos  1 1 


^thra     =     ^geus 

I 

Theseus 
=  2)  Antiope  (Hippolyta) 

Hippolytus 


Creiisa 
:  (1)  Apollo  =r  (2)  Xuthus 


=  3)  Phaedra 
d.  of  Minos  1 1 


Cecrops  (see  65).  According  to  one  tradition,  Cecrops  was  autochthonous  and 
had  one  son,  Erysichthon,  who  died  without  issue,  and  three  daughters,  Herse, 
Aglauros,  and  Pandrosos  (personifications  of  Dew  and  its  vivifying  influences). 
According  to  another,  he  was  of  the  line  of  Erichthonius,  being  either  a  son  of 
Pandion  I,  or  a  son  of  Erechtheus  and  a  grandson  of  Pandion  I.  Apollodorus  makes 
him  father  of  Pandion  II.  He  was  regarded  as  founder  of  the  worship  of  Athene 
and  of  various  civic  institutions.    He  is  probably  a  hero  of  the  Pelasgian  race. 

Ion,  According  to  one  tradition,  the  race  of  Erechtheus  became  extinct,  save 
for  Ion,  a  son  of  Apollo  and  Creiisa,  daughter  of  Erechtheus.  This  son,  having 
been  removed  at  birth,  was  brought  up  in  Apollo's  temple  at  Delphi,  and,  in 
accordance  with  the  oracle  of  Apollo,  afterwards  adopted  by  Creiisa  and  her  hus- 
band Xuthus  (see  the  Ion  of  Euripides).  Ion  founded  the  new  dynasty  of  Athens. 
Put,  according  to  Pausanias  and  Apollodorus,  the  dynasty  of  Erechtheus  was  con- 
tinued by  ^geus,  who  was  either  a  son,  or  an  adopted  son,  of  Pandion  II.  By 
.-Kthra  he  became  father  of  Theseus,  in  whose  veins  flowed,  therefore,  the  blood 
of  Pelops  and  of  Erichthonius. 

Interpretative.  The  story  of  Philomela  was  probably  invented  to  account  for 
the  sad  song  of  the  nightingale.  With  her  the  swallow  is  associated  as  another 
much  loved  bird  of  spring.  Occasionally  Procne  is  spoken  of  as  the  nightingale,  and 
Philomela  as  the  swallow,  and  Tereus  as  taking  the  form  of  a  red-crested  hoopoe. 

Illustrative.  Chaucer,  Legende  of  Good  Women  (Philomene  of  Athens) ;  Milton, 
11  Penseroso;  Richard  Barnfield,  Song,  "As  it  fell  upon  a  day";  Thomson, 
Hymn  on  the  Seasons;  Swinburne,  Itylus ;  Oscar  Wilde,  The  Burden  of  Itys; 
Sir  Thomas  Noon  Talfourd's  drama.  Ion. 


COMMENTARY  525 

176-181.  Trcezen :  in  Argolis.  According  to  some  the  Amazonian  wife  of 
Theseus  was  Hippolyta,  but  her  Hercules  had  already  killed.  Theseus  is  said  to 
have  united  the  several  tribes  of  Attica  into  one  state,  of  which  Athens  was  the 
capital.  In  commemoration  of  this  important  event,  he  instituted  the  festival  of 
Panathenaea,  in  honor  of  Athene,  the  patron  deity  of  Athens.  This  festival  dif- 
fered from  the  other  Grecian  games  chiefly  in  two  particulars.  It  was  pecuHar  to 
the  Athenians,  and  its  chief  feature  was  a  solemn  procession  in  which  the  Peplus, 
or  sacred  robe  of  Athene,  was  carried  to  the  Parthenon,  and  left  on  or  before 
the  statue  of  the  goddess.  The  Peplus  was  covered  with  embroidery,  worked  by 
select  virgins  of  the  noblest  families  in  Athens.  The  procession  consisted  of  per- 
sons of  all  ages  and  both  sexes.  The  old  men  carried  olive  branches  in  their 
hands,  and  the  young  men  bore  arms.  The  young  women  carried  baskets  on  their 
heads,  containing  the  sacred  utensils,  cakes,  and  all  things  necessary  for  the  sacri- 
fices. The  procession  formed  the  subject  of  the  bas-reliefs  which  embellished  the 
frieze  of  the  temple  of  the  Parthenon.  A  considerable  portion  of  these  sculptures 
is  now  in  the  British  Museum  among  those  known  as  the  "  Elgin  Marbles."  We 
may  mention  here  the  other  celebrated  national  games  of  the  Greeks.  The  first 
and  most  distinguished  were  the  Olympic,  founded,  it  was  said,  by  Zeus  him- 
self. They  were  celebrated  at  Olympia  in  Elis.  Vast  numbers  of  spectators 
flocked  to  them  from  every  part  of  Greece,  and  from  Asia,  Africa,  and  Sicily. 
They  were  repeated  every  fifth  year  in  midsummer,  and  continued  five  days.  They 
gave  rise  to  the  custom  of  reckoning  time  and  dating  events  by  Olympiads.  The 
first  Olympiad  is  generally  considered  as  beginning  with  the  year  776  B.C.  The 
Pythian  games  were  celebrated  in  the  vicinity  of  Delphi,  the  Isthmian  on 
the  Corinthian  isthmus,  the  Nemean  at  Nemea,  a  city  of  Argolis.  The  exer- 
cises in  these  games  were  chariot-racing,  running,  leaping,  wrestling,  throwing 
the  quoit,  hurling  the  javelin,  and  boxing.  Besides  these  exercises  of  bodily 
strength  and  agility,  there  were  contests  in  music,  poetry,  and  eloquence.  Thus 
these  games  furnished  poets,  musicians,  and  authors  the  best  opportunities  to 
present  their  productions  to  the  public,  and  the  fame  of  the  victors  was  diffused 
far  and  wide. 

Interpretative.  Theseus  is  the  Attic  counterpart  of  Hercules,  not  so  significant 
in  moral  character,  but  eminent  for  numerous  similar  labors,  and  preeminent  as 
the  mythical  statesman  of  Athens.  Ilis  story  may,  with  the  usual  perilous  facility, 
be  explained  as  a  solar  myth.  Periphetes  may  be  a  storm  cloud  with  its  thunder- 
bolts ;  the  Marathonian  Bull  and  the  Minotaur  may  be  forms  of  the  power  of 
darkness  hidden  in  the  starry  labyrinth  of  heaven.  Like  Hercules,  Theseus  fights 
with  the  Amazons  (clouds,  we  may  suppose,  in  some  form  or  other),  and,  like  him, 
he  descends  to  the  underworld.  Ariadne  may  be  another  twilight-sweetheart  of 
the  sun,  and,  like  Medea  and  Dejanira,  she  must  be  deserted.  She  is  either  the 
"  well-pleasing  "  or  the  "  saintly."  She  was,  presumably,  a  local  nature-goddess  of 
Naxos  and  Crete,  who,  in  process  of  time,  like  Medea,  sank  to  the  condition  of  a 
heroine.  Probably  from  her  goddess-existence  the  marriage  with  Bacchus  sur- 
vived, to  be  incorporated  later  with  the  Attic  myth  of  Theseus.    As  the  female 


526  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

semblance  of  Bacchus,  she  appears  to  have  been  a  promoter  of  vegetation ;  and. 
like  Proserpina,  she  alternated  between  the  joy  of  spring  and  the  melancholy  of 
winter.  By  some  she  is  considered  to  be  connected  with  star-worship  as  a 
moon-goddess. 

Illustrative.  Chaucer,  The  Knight's  Tale  (for  Theseus  and  Ypolita) ;  The  Hous 
of  Fame,  407,  and  the  Legende  of  Good  Women,  1884,  for  Ariadne  ;  Shakespeare, 
Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona,  IV,  i ;  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  II,  ii  (Hippolyta  and 
Theseus) ;  Shakespeare  and  Fletcher,  Two  Noble  Kinsmen.  In  Beaumont  and 
Fletcher's  Maid's  Tragedy,  II,  ii,  a  tapestry  is  ordered  to  be  worked  illustrating 
Theseus'  desertion  of  Ariadne.  Landor,  To  Joseph  Ablett,  "Bacchus  is  coming 
down  to  drink  to  Ariadne's  love  "  ;  Landor,  Theseus,  and  Hippolyta ;  Mrs.  Brown- 
ing, Paraphrase  on  Nonnus  (Bacchus  and  Ariadne),  Paraphrase  on  Hesiod;  Sir 
Theodore  Martin,  Catullus,  LXIV.  Other  poems  :  B.  W.  Procter,  On  the  Statue 
of  Theseus;  Frederick  Tennyson,  Ariadne  (Daphne  and  Other  Poems);  Mrs. 
Hemans,  The  Shade  of  Theseus;  R.  S.  Ross,  Ariadne  in  Naxos ;  J.  S.  Blackie, 
Ariadne ;  W.  M.  W.  Call,  Ariadne ;  Mrs.  H.  H.  Jackson,  Ariadne's  Farewell. 
Phaedra  and  Hippolytus ;  The  Hippolytus  of  Euripides ;  Swinburne,  Phaedra ; 
Browning,  Artemis  Prologizes ;  M.  P.  Fitzgerald,  The  Crowned  Hippolytus ;  A. 
Mary  F.  Robinson,  The  Crowned  Hippolytus  ;  L.  Morris,  Phaedra  (Epic  of  Hades). 
OnCecrops:  J.  S.  Blackie,  The  Naming  of  Athens;  Erechtheus,by  A.  C.  Swinburne. 

In  Art.  Theseus:  the  original  of  Fig.  140,  text  is  in  the  Hermitage,  in 
Petrograd;  of  Fig.  141  in  the  Naples  Museum.  The  Battle  with  the  Amazons 
frequently  recurs  in  ancient  sculpture.  The  sleeping  Ariadne,  of  the  Vatican, 
Fig.  142,  text.  Also  the  Revels  as  in  text.  Fig.  144.  Modern  Sculpture:  the 
Theseus  of  Canova  (Volksgarten,  Vienna)  ;  the  Ariadne  of  Dannecker.  Paint- 
ings :  Tintoretto's  Ariadne  and  Bacchus ;  Teschendorff's  Ariadne ;  Titian's 
Bacchus  and  Ariadne. 

182-189.   The  Royal  Family  of  Thebes. 


1 


Table  N 


Agenor 

I 
Cadmus 


Agave  (Echion)        Polydonis 
Pentheus  Labdacus 

Menoeceus  I 

I 


Creon  Jocasta   =   Laius 


Menoeceus  II  Haemon  CEdipus  =  Jocasta 


fiteocles       Polynices     Antigone      Ismene 


Illustrative.    (Edipus:  Plumptre's   translation   of   Qldipus  the   King,   CEdipus 
Coloneus,   and   .\ntigone ;    Shelley,    Swellfoot  the   Tyrant;    E.   Fitzgerald,   The 


COMMENTARY  527 

Downfall  and  Death  of  King  Oidipus ;  Sir  F.  H.  Doyle,  CEdipus  Tyrannus ; 
Aubrey  De  Vere,  Antigone ;  Emerson,  The  Sphinx ;  W.  B.  Scott,  The  Sphinx ; 
M.  Arnold,  Fragment  of  an  "  Antigone."  Tiresias :  by  Swinburne.  Tennyson, 
and  Thomas  Woolner. 

In  Art.  Ancient:  CEdipus  and  the  Sphinx  (in  Monuments  Inedits,  Rome  and 
Paris,  1839-1878).  Modern  paintings :  Teschendorff's  CEdipus  and  Antigone, 
Antigone  and  Ismene,  and  Antigone;  QLdipus  and  the  Sphinx,  by  J.  D.  A. 
Ingres ;  The  Sphinx,  by  D.  G.  Rossetti. 

Of  the  stories  told  in  these  and  the  following  sections  no  systematic,  alle- 
gorical, or  physical  interpretations  are  here  given,  because  (i)  the  general  method 
followed  by  the  unravelers  of  myth  has  already  been  sufficiently  illustrated;  (2) 
the  attempt  to  force  symbolic  conceptions  into  the  longer  folk-stories,  or  into  the 
artistic  myths  and  epics  of  any  country,  is  historically  unwarranted  and,  in 
practice,  is  only  too  often  capricious ;  (3)  the  effort  to  interpret  such  stories  as 
the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey  must  result  in  destroying  those  elements  of  uncon- 
scious simplicity  an-d  romantic  vigor  that  characterize  the  early  products  of  the 
creative  imagination. 

190-194.  Houses  concerned  in  the  Trojan  War. 

Table  O 

(i)  Family  of  Peleus  and  its  connections  : 

Asopus 

Jupiter  =  /Egina         Nereus  =  Doris 
JEAcns 


Telamon  Peleus       =       Thetis 

=  (i)  Eriboea     =  (2)  Hesione  I 

I  I  Achilles 

Ajax  Teucer  I 

Pyrrhus  (Neoptolemus) 
=:  Hermione 
d.  of  Menelaiis  and  Helen 

(2)  Family  of  Atreus  and  its  connections  : 

Jupiter 


Minos  I  Tantalus 

I 


Lycastus 

Minos  II  Pelops  =  Hippodamia 

I 
Crateus 


Aerope  =:  Atreus  Thyestes        Pittneus 


Agamemnon  Menelaiis  iSglsthus      .Ethra 

=  Clytemnestra  =  Helen  ^.-Egeus) 

I  I ,  I 

Theseus 


I I \ \  I  .      I, 

Iphigenia        Electra        Chrysothemis        Orestes  Hermione        Hippolytus 

=  (i\  Neoptolemus 
^  (2)  Orestes 


52.H 


TIIK  CLASSIC   MYTHS 


(3)  Family  of  Tyndareus  and  its  connections ; 

^olus 

I 
Perieres  Thestius 


Icarius 

Penelope 


Tyndareus       =       Leda       =       Jupiier 


Castor      Clytemnestra 


I  ^1 

Pollux        Helen 

:=  (i)  Menelaiis 
;=  (2)  Paris 


Castor  and  Pollux  are  called  sometimes  Dioscuri  (sons  of  Jove),  sometimes 
Tyndaridae  (sons  of  Tyndareus).  Helen  is  frequently  called  Tyndaris,  daughter 
of  Tyndareus. 

(4)  Descent  of  Ulysses  and  Penelope  : 

Hellen 

I 
Mo\us 


Perieres 

1 

1 
Deion 

1 

1 

Icarius 

1 

Penelope 

Tyndareus 
(Leda) 

1 

1                              1 
Cephalus                   Actor 
(Procris)                        1 

1                               1 

(Ulysses) 
Telemachus 

1                      1 
Castor     Clytemnestra 

Arcesius                Menoetius 

1                              1 
Laertes                Patroclus 

( 5)  The  Royal  Family  of  Troy  : 


Ulysses 

lapetus  (Titan) 
i 
Atlas 

I 
Electra  (Pleiad)  =  Jupiter 
I 
Dardanus     = 


Teucer 

I 
Batea 


Erichthonius 

I 

Tros 


llus  II 

I 

Laomedon 


Aurora  =  I'ithonus 

I 
Memnon 


I 

Hesione 

(Telamon) 

I 

Teucer 


Hecuba  =  Priam 


Assaracus 

I 

Capys 


Anchises  ^  Venus 
I 
.Sneas  =  Creiisa 


Ascanius 

(lulus) 


Hector  Paris  Deiphobus    Helenus    Troilus    Cassandra    Creiisa 

=  Andromache  =  (i)  CEnone  =  i^neas 

I  =  (2)  Helen 
Astyanax  Polyxena 

195.  On  the  Iliad  and  on  Troy:   Keats,  Sonnet  on  Chapman's  Homer;  Mihon, 
Paradise  Lost,  i,  57S ;  9,   16;  II  Penseroso,   too;  Hartley  Coleridge,  Sonnet  on 


COMMENTARY 


529 


Homer  ;  T.  B.  Aldrich,  Pillared  Arch  and  Sculptured  Tower  ;  the  Sonnets  of  Lang 
and  Myers  prefixed  to  Lang,  Leaf,  and  Myers'  translation  of  the  Iliad.  On  the 
Judgment  of  Paris:  George  Peele,  Arraignment  of  Paris;  James  Beattie,  Judg- 
ment of  Paris ;  Tennyson,  Dream  of  Fair  Women ;  J.  S.  Blackie,  Judgment  of 
Paris.  See,  for  allusions,  Shakespeare,  All 's  Well  that  Ends  Well,  I,  ii,  iii ;  Henry 
V,  II,  iv ;  Troilus  and  Cressida,  I,  i;  II,  ii ;  III,  i;  Romeo  and  Juliet,  I,  ii ;  II, 
iv ;  IV,  i;  V,  iii.  On  Helen:  A.  Lang,  Helen  of  Troy,  and  his  translation 
of  Theocritus,  Idyl  XVIII;  Landor,  Menelaiis  and  Helen;  Jo'm  Todhunter, 
Helena  in  Troas ;  G.  P.  Lathrop,  Helen  at  the  Loom  [Atlantic  Monthly,  Vol.  32, 
1873).  S^^  Shakespeare,  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  I,  i;  III,  ii ;  IV,  i;  All's 
Well  that  Ends  Well,  I,  i,  iii;  II,  ii ;  Romeo  and  Juliet,  II,  iv ;  Troilus  and 
Cressida,  II,  ii ;  Marlowe,  Faustus  (Helen  appears  before  Faust). 

In  Art.  Homer:  the  sketch  by  Raphael  (in  the  Museum,  Venice).  Paris  and 
Helen.  Paintings  :  Helen  of  Troy,  Sir  Frederick  Leighton  ;  Paris  and  Helen,  by 
David ;  The  Judgment  of  Paris,  by  Rubens ;  by  Watteau.  Sculpture :  Canova's 
Paris.  Crayons:  D.  G.  Rossetti's  Helen;  see  also  Hg.  150,  as  in  text  (ancient 
relief,  Naples). 

196.  Iphigenia  and  Agamemnon.  Sometimes,  in  accordance  with  Goethe's 
practice,  the  name  Tauris  is  given  to  the  land  of  the  Tauri.  To  be  correct  one 
should  say,  "  Iphigenia  among  the  Tauri,"  or  "  Taurians."  (See  Index.)  Iphigenia 
and  Agamemnon  by  W.  S.  Landor ;  also  his  Shades  of  Agamemnon  and  Iphigenia; 
Dryden,  Cymon  and  Iphigenia  ;  Richard  Garnett,  Iphigenia  in  Delphi;  Sir  Edwin 
Arnold,  Iphigenia  ;  W.  B.  Scott,  Iphigenia  at  Aulis.  Any  translations  of  Goethe's 
Iphigenia  in  Tauris,  and  of  Euripides'  Iphigenia  in  Aulis  and  Among  the  Tauri ; 
also  of  ^^schylus'  Agamemnon,  —  such  as  those  by  Milman,  Anna  Swanwick, 
Plumptre,  E.  A.  Morshead,  J.  S.  Blackie,  E.  Fitzgerald,  and  Robert  Browning. 
For  Agamemnon,  see  Shakespeare,  Troilus  and  Cressida,  I,  iii;  II,  i,  iii;  III, 
iii;  IV, v;  V,  i;  and  James  Thomson,  Agamemnon  (a  drama).  The  Troilus  and 
Cressida  story  is  not  found  in  Greek  and  Latin  classics.  Shakespeare  follows 
Chaucer's  Troilus  and  Criseyde,  which  is  based  upon  the  Filostrato  and  the 
P'ilocolo  of  Boccaccio.  Pandarus :  the  character  of  this  name,  uncle  of  Cressida, 
to  be  found  in  Lydgate,  Chaucer's  Troilus  and  Criseyde,  and  Shakespeare's  play 
of  the  same  title,  enjoys  an  unsavory  reputation  for  which  medieval  romance  is 
responsible.    On  Menelaiis,  see  notes  to  Helen  and  Agamemnon. 

In  Art.  Iphigenia.  Paintings:  Fig.  152,  text  (Museum,  Naples);  E.  Hiibner; 
William  Kaulbach  ;  E.  Teschendorff. 

199.  Achilles.  Chaucer,  Hous  of  Fame,  398  ;  Dethe  of  Blaunche,  329  ;  Landor, 
Peleus  and  Thetis ;  Robert  Bridges,  Achilles  in  Scyros ;  Sir  Theodore  Martin, 
translation  of  Catullus,  LXIV;  translation  by  C.  M.  Gayley  as  quoted  in  text. 
See  also  Shakespeare,  Troilus  and  Cressida;  2  Henry  VI,  V,  i ;  Love's  Labour's 
Lost,  V,  ii;  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  9,  15. 

In  Art.  In  general.  Figs.  151,  153,  155-156,  159-162,  in  text;  Wiertz,  Fighl 
for  the  Body  of  Achilles  (Wiertz  Museum,  Brussels) ;  Burne-Jones,  The  Feast 
of  Peleus  (picture). 


5-30  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

204.  Ajax.  Plumptre,  Ajax  of  Sophocles  ;  Shakespeare,  Troilus  and  Cressida, 
Love's  Labour's  Lost,  IV,  iii ;  V,  ii;  Taming  of  the  Shrew,  III,  i;  Antony  and 
Cleopatra,  IV,  ii ;  King  Lear,  II,  ii;  Cymbeline,  IV,  ii;  George  Crabbe,  The  Village. 

In  Art.  The  ancient  sculpture,  Ajax  (or  Menelaiis)  of  the  Vatican.  Modern 
sculpture.  The  Ajax  of  Canova.    Flaxman's  outline  drawings  for  the  Iliad. 

207.  Hector  and  Andromache.  Mrs.  Browning,  Hector  and  Andromache,  a 
paraphrase  of  Homer;  C.  T.  Brooks,  Schiller's  Parting  of  Hector  and  Androm- 
ache. See  also  Shakespeare,  Troilus  and  Cressida;  Love's  Labour's  Lost,  V,  ii ; 
2  Henry  IV,  II,  iv;  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  IV,  viii. 

In  Art.  Flaxman's  outline  sketches  of  the  Fight  for  the  Body  of  Patroclus, 
Hector  dragged  by  Achilles,  Priam  supplicating  Achilles,  Hector's  Funeral, 
Andromache  fainting  on  the  Walls  of  Troy ;  Canova's  Hector  (sculpture) ;  Thor- 
waldsen's  Hector  and  Andromache  (relief)  (Fig.  154,  text).  Hector,  Ajax,  Paris, 
.^neas,  Patroclus,  Teucer,  etc..  among  the  .^gina  Marbles  (Glyptothek,  Munich). 
The  Pasquino  group  (Fig.  158,  in  text)  is  from  a  copy  in  the  Pitti,  Florence. 

216.  Priam  and  Hecuba.  The  translations  of  Euripides'  Hecuba  and  Troades  ; 
Shakespeare,  Troilus  and  Cressida;  Coriolanus,  I,  iii ;  Cymbeline,  IV,  ii ;  Hamlet, 
II,  ii;  2  Henry  IV,  I,  i. 

219-220.  Polyxena.  W.  S.  Landor,  The  Espousals  of  Polyxena.  Philoctetes: 
translation  of  Sophocles  by  Plumptre  ;  sonnet  by  Wordsworth ;  drama  by  Lord  de 
Tabley. 

221.  (Enone.  See  A.  Lang,  Helen  of  Troy ;  W.  Morris,  Death  of  Paris  (Earthly 
Paradise) ;  Landor,  Corythos  (son  of  CEnone),  the  Death  of  Paris,  and  CEnone; 
Tennyson,  Oinone,  also  the  Death  of  Oinone,  which  is  not  so  good. 

The  pathetic  story  of  the  death  of  Corythus,  the  son  of  CEnone  and  Paris,  at 
the  hands  of  his  father,  who  was  jealous  of  Helen's  tenderness  toward  the  youth, 
is  a  later  myth. 

223.  Sinon.  Shakespeare,  3  Henry  VI,  III,  ii ;  Cymbeline,  III,  iv;  Titus 
Andronicus.  V,  iii. 

224.  Laocoon.  L.  Morris,  in  The  Epic  of  Hades.  See  Frothingham's  translation 
of  Lessing's  Laocoon  (a  most  important  discussion  of  the  Laocoon  group  and  of 
principles  of  aesthetics).    See  also  Swift's  Description  of  a  City  Shower. 

In  Art.  The  original  of  the  celebrated  group  (statuary)  of  Laocoon  and  his 
children  in  the  embrace  of  the  serpents  is  in  the  Vatican  in  Rome.  (See  text, 
opp.  p.  310.) 

226.  Cassandra.  Chaucer,  Troilus  and  Criseyde;  Dethe  of  Blaunche,  1246. 
Poems  by  W.  M.  Praed  and  D.  G.  Rossetti.  See  Troilus  and  Cressida,  I,  i;  II,  ii ; 
V,  iii ;  Lord  Lytton's  translation  of  Schiller's  Cassandra. 

In  Art.    The  Cassandra  of  Dante  Gabriel  Rossetti  (in  ink). 

228-230.  Electra  and  Orestes.  Translations  of  the  Electra  of  Sophocles,  the 
I.ibation-pourers  and  the  Eumenides  of  ^Eschylus,  by  Plumptre ;  and  of  the 
Orestes  and  Electra  of  Euripides,  by  Wodhull.  Lord  de  Tabley,  Orestes  (a 
drama) ;  Byron,  Childe  Harold,  4 ;  Milton,  sonnet,  "  The  repeated  air  Of  sad 
Electra's  poet,"  etc. 


COMMENTARY  53 1 

In  Art.  Graeco-Roinan  sculpture:  Fig.  169,  in  text,  Orestes  and  Pylades  find 
Iphigenia  among  the  Taurians.  Pompeian  Fresco ;  Orestes  and  Electra  (Villa 
Ludovisi,  Rome) ;  Orestes  and  Electra  (National  Museum,  Naples).  Vase-paint- 
ings:  Figs.  167-168  in  text;  also  Orestes  slaying  .Egisthus;  Orestes  at  Delphi; 
Purification  of  Orestes.  Modern  paintings :  Electra,  by  Teschendorf^  and  by  Seifert. 

Clytemnestra,  The  Death  of,  by  W.  S.  Landor;  Clytemnestra,  by  L.  Morris, 
in  The  Epic  of  Hades. 

Troy:  Byron,  in  his  Bride  of  Abydos,  thus  describes  the  appearance  of  the 
deserted  scene  where  once  stood  Troy  : 

The  winds  are  high,  and  Halle's  tide 
Rolls  darkly  heaving  to  the  main  ; 
And  Night's  descending  shadows  hide 

That  field  with  blood  bedew'd  in  vain, 
The  desert  of  old  Priam's  pride ; 
The  tombs,  sole  relics  of  his  reign. 
All  —  save  immortal  dreams  that  could  beguile 
The  blind  old  man  of  Scio's  rocky  isle  ! 

On  Troy  the  following  references  will  be  valuable  :  H.  W.  Acland,  The  Plains 
of  Troy,  2  vols.  (London,  1839) ;  H.  Schliemann,  Troy  and  its  Remains  (I>ondon, 
1875);  I'^os  (London,  1881);  Troja,  results  of  latest  researches  on  the  site  of 
Homer's  Troy  (London,  1882) ;  W.  J.  Armstrong,  Atlantic  Mo?itkly,  Vol.  33,  p.  175 
(1874),  Over  Ilium  and  Ida ;  R.  C.  ]&hh,  Jottr.  Helleftk  Studies,  Vol.  2,  p.  7,  Homeric 
and  Hellenic  Ilium;  Fortn.  Revietv,  N.  S.  Vol.  35,  p.  4331  (1884),  Homeric  Troy 

231-244.  The  Odyssey:  Lang,  .Sonnet,  "As  one  that  for  a  weary  space  has 
lain,"  prefixed  to  Butcher  and  Lang's  Odyssey.  Translations  by  \V.  Morris,  G.  H. 
Palmer,  Chapman,  Bryant,  Pope.  Ulysses  :  Tennyson ;  Landor,  The  Last  of 
Ulysses.  See  also  Shakespeare,  Troilus  and  Cressida;  3  Henry  VI,  III,  ii ; 
Coriolanus,  I,  iii ;  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  2,  1019;  Comus,  637;  R.  Buchanan, 
Cloudland;  Pope,  Rape  of  the  Lock,  4,  182;  Stephen  Phillips,  Ulysses;  Robert 
Bridges,  The  Return  of  Ulysses ;  R.  C.  Rogers,  Odysseus  at  the  Mast,  Blind 
Polyphemus,  Argus. 

In  Art.  Statuettes,  vase-paintings,  and  reliefs  as  in  text.  Figs.  170-180;  also 
Ulysses  summoning  Tiresias  (in  Monuments  Inedits,  Rome  and  Paris,  1839-1878) ; 
Meeting  with  Nausicaa  (Gerhard's  vase  pictures)  ;  outline  drawings  of  Ulysses 
weeping  at  the  song  of  Demodocus,  boring  out  the  eye  of  Polyphemus,  Ulysses 
killing  the  suitors,  Mercury  conducting  the  souls  of  the  suitors,  Ulysses  and  his 
dog,  etc.,  by  Flaxman. 

Penelope:  Poems  by  R.  Buchanan,  E.  C.  Stedman,  and  W.  S.  Landor.  In 
ancient  sculpture,  the  Penelope  in  the  Vatican.  Modern  painting  by  C.  F. 
Marchal.    In  crayons  by  D.  G.  Rossetti. 

Circe  :  M.  Arnold,  The  Strayed  Reveller ;  Hood,  Lycus,  the  Centaur ;  D.  G. 
Rossetti,  The  Wine  of  Circe ;  Saxe,  The  Spell  of  Circe.  See  Shakespeare,  Comedy 
of  Errors,  V,  i ;  i  Henry  VI,  V,  iii;  Milton,  Comus,  50,  153,  253,  522;  Pope, 
Satire  8,  166 ;  Cowper,  Progress  of  Error ;  O.  W.  Holmes,  Metrical  Essay  ;  Keats, 


532  THE  C'LASSU:   MVTHS 

lindymion,  "  I  sue  not  for  my  happy  crown  again,"  etc.  Circe  and  the  Compan- 
ions of  Ulysses,  a  painting  by  Briton  Riviere.    Circe,  in  crayons. 

On  Sirens  and  Scylla  see  C-  50-52  ;  S.  Daniel,  Ulysses  and  the  Siren  ;  Lowell. 
The  Sirens.  Scylla  and  C^harybdis  have  become  proverbial  to  denote  opposite 
dangers  besetting  one's  course.   Siren,  in  crayons  ;  Sea-Spell,  in  oil,  D.  G.  Rossetti. 

Calypso  :  Pope,  Moral  Essays,  2,  45  ;  poem  by  Edgar  Fawcett  {Putnam''s  Mag., 
14,  1869).  Fenelon,  in  his  romance  of  Telemachus,  has  given  us  the  adventures 
of  the  son  of  Ulysses  in  search  of  his  father.  Among  other  places  which  he  visited, 
following  on  his  father's  footsteps,  was  Calypso's  isle ;  as  in  the  former  case,  the 
goddess  tried  every  art  to  keep  the  youth  with  her,  and  offered  to  share  her  immor- 
tality with  him.  But  Minerva,  who,  in  the  shape  of  Mentor,  accompanied  him  and 
governed  all  his  movements,  made  him  repel  her  allurements.  Finally,  when  no 
other  means  of  escape  could  be  found,  the  two  friends  leaped  from  a  cliff  into  the 
sea  and  swam  to  a  vessel  which  lay  becalmed  offshore.  Byron  alludes  to  this  leap 
of  Telemachus  and  Mentor  in  the  stanza  of  Childe  Harold  beginning  "  But  not  in 
silence  pass  Calypso's  isles  "  (2,  29).    Calypso's  isle  is  said  to  be  Goza. 

Homer's  description  of  the  ships  of  the  Phaeacians  has  been  thought  to  look 
like  an  anticipation  of  the  wonders  of  modern  steam  navigation.  See  the  address 
of  Alcinous  to  Ulysses,  promising  "  wondrous  ships,  self-moved,  instinct  with 
mind,"  etc.  (Odyssey,  S). 

Lord  Carlisle,  in  his  Diary  in  the  Turkish  and  Greek  Waters,  thus  speaks  of 
Corfu,  which  he  considers  to  be  the  ancient  Phseacian  island : 

"  The  sites  explain  the  Odyssey.  The  temple  of  the  sea-god  could  not  have 
been  more  fitly  placed,  upon  a  grassy  platform  of  the  most  elastic  turf,  on  the 
brow  of  a  crag  commanding  harbor,  and  channel,  and  ocean.  Just  at  the  entrance 
of  the  inner  harbor  there  is  a  picturesque  rock  with  a  small  convent  perched  upon 
it,  which  by  one  legend  is  the  transformed  pinnace  of  Ulysses. 

"  Almost  the  only  river  in  the  island  is  just  at  the  proper  distance  from  the 
probable  site  of  the  city  and  palace  of  the  king,  to  justify  the  princess  Nausicaa 
having  had  resort  to  her  chariot  and  to  luncheon  when  she  went  with  the  maidens 
of  the  court  to  wash  their  garments." 

245-254.  Poems  :  Tennyson,  To  Virgil,  of  which  a  few  stanzas  are  given  in  the 
text ;  R.  C.  Rogers,  Virgil's  Tomb,  ^neas  and  Anchises :  Chaucer,  Hous  of  Fame, 
165;  140-470  (pictures  of  Troy);  Shakespeare,  Troilus  and  Cressida;  Tempest,  II,  i; 
2  Henry  VI,  V,  ii ;  Julius  Cassar,  I,  ii ;  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  IV,  ii ;  Hamlet,  II,  ii ; 
Waller,  Panegyric  to  the  Lord  Protector  (The  Stilling  of  Neptune's  Storm). 

Dido :  Chaucer,  Legende  of  Good  Women,  923 ;  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt,  The  Song  of 
lopas  (unfinished)  ;  Marlowe,  Tragedy  of  Dido,  Queen  of  Carthage;  Shakespeare, 
Antony  and  Cleopatra,  IV,  xii ;  Titus  Andronicus,  II,  iii;  Hamlet,  II,  ii.  Palinurus  : 
see  Scott's  Marmion,  Introd.  to  Canto  I  (with  reference  to  the  death  of  William  Pitt). 

The  Sibyl.  The  following  legend  of  the  Sibyl  is  fixed  at  a  later  date.  In  the 
reign  of  one  of  the  Tarquins  there  appeared  before  the  king  a  woman  who  offered 
him  nine  books  for  sale.  The  king  refused  to  purchase  them,  whereupon  the 
woman  went  away  and  burned  three  of  the  books,  and  returning  offered  the 


COMMENTARY  533 

remaining  books  for  the  same  price  she  had  asked  for  the  nine.  The  king  again 
rejected  them ;  but  when  the  woman,  after  burning  three  books  more,  returned 
and  asked  for  the  three  remaining  the  same  price  which  she  had  before  asked  for 
the  nine,  his  curiosity  was  excited,  and  he  purchased  the  books.  They  were  found 
to  contain  the  destinies  of  the  Roman  state.  They  were  kept  in  the  temple  of 
Jupiter  Capitolinus,  preserved  in  a  stone  chest,  and  allowed  to  be  inspected  only 
by  especial  officers  appointed  for  that  duty,  who  on  great  occasions  consulted 
them  and  interpreted  their  oracles  to  the  people. 

There  were  various  Sibyls ;  but  the  Cumaean  Sibyl,  of  whom  Ovid  and  Virgil 
write,  is  the  most  celebrated  of  them.  Ovid's  story  of  her  life  protracted  to  one 
thousand  years  may  be  intended  to  represent  ihe  various  Sibyls  as  being  only 
reappearances  of  one  and  the  same  individual. 

Illustrative.  Young,  in  the  Night  Thoughts,  alludes  to  the  Sibyl.  See  also 
Shakespeare,  i  Henry  VI,  II,  ii ;  Othello,  III,  iv. 

In  Art.  Figs.  181-183,  in  text.  The  Virgil  of  Raphael  (drawing  in  the  Museum, 
Venice);  the  ^neas  of  the  ^gina  Marbles  (Glyptothek,  Munich).  P.  Guerin's 
painting,  ^neas  at  the  Court  of  Dido ;  Raphael,  Dido ;  Turner,  Dido  building 
Carthage.  The  Sibyls  in  Michelangelo's  frescoes  in  the  Sistine  Chapel,  Rome ; 
the  Cumasan  Sibyl  of  Domenichino ;  Elihu  Vedder's  Cumaean  Sibyl. 

255-257.  Rhadamanthus :  E.  W.  Gosse,  The  Island  of  the  Blest.  Tantalus; 
Cowper,  The  Progress  of  Error ;  L.  Morris,  Epic  of  Hades  ;  W.  W.  Story,  Tantalus. 
Ixion :  poem  by  Browning  in  Jocoseria.  See  Pope,  St.  Cecilia's  Day,  67  ;  Rape 
of  the  Lock,  2,  133.  Sisyphus:  Lord  Lytton,  Death  and  Sisyphus;  L.  Morris, 
in  The  Epic  of  Hades. 

The  teachings  of  Anchises  to  /Eneas,  respecting  the  nature  of  the  human 
soul,  were  in  conformity  with  the  doctrines  of  the  Pythagoreans.  Pythagoras 
(born  about  540  B.C.)  was  a  native  of  the  island  of  Samos,  but  passed  the  chief 
portion  of  his  life  at  Crotona  in  Italy.  He  is  therefore  sometimes  called  '"  the 
Samian,"  and  sometimes  "  the  philosopher  of  Crotona."  When  young  he  traveled 
extensively  and  is  said  to  have  visited  Egypt,  where  he  was  instructed  by  the 
priests,  and  afterwards  to  have  journeyed  to  the  East,  where  he  visited  the  Per- 
sian and  Chaldean  Magi,  and  the  Brahmins  of  India.  He  established  himself  at 
Crotona,  and  enjoined  sobriety,  temperance,  simplicity,  and  silence  upon  his 
throngs  of  disciples.  Ipse  dixit  (Pythagoras  said  so)  was  to  be  held  by  them  as 
sufficient  proof  of  anything.  Only  advanced  pupils  might  question.  Pythagoras 
considered  numbers  as  the  essence  and  principle  of  all  things,  and  attributed  to 
them  a  real  and  distinct  existence ;  so  that,  in  his  view,  they  were  the  elements 
out  of  which  the  universe  was  constructed. 

As  the  numbers  proceed  from  the  monad  or  unit,  so  he  regarded  the  pure  and 
simple  essence  of  the  Deity  as  the  source  of  all  the  forms  of  nature.  Gods, 
demons,  and  heroes  are  emanations  of  the  Supreme,  and  there  is  a  fourth 
emanation,  the  human  soul.  This  is  immortal,  and  when  freed  from  the  fetters  of 
ihe  body,  passes  to  the  habitation  of  the  dead,  where  it  remains  till  it  returns  to 
the  world,  to  dwell  in  some  other  human  or  animal  body ;  at  last,  when  sufficiently 


534  'i^HE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

purified,  it  returns  to  the  source  from  which  it  proceeded.  This  doctrine  of  the 
transmigration  of  souls  (metempsychosis),  which  was  originally  Egyptian  and  con- 
nected with  the  doctrine  of  reward  and  punishment  of  human  actions,  was  the 
chief  reason  why  the  Pythagoreans  killed  no  animals.  Ovid  represents  Pythagoras 
saying  that  in  the  time  of  the  Trojan  War  he  was  Euphorbus,  the  son  of  Panthus, 
and  fell  by  the  spear  of  Menelaiis.  Lately,  he  said,  he  had  recognized  his  shield 
hanging  among  the  trophies  in  the  Temple  of  Juno  at  Argos. 

On  Metempsychosis,  see  the  essay  in  the  Spectator  (No.  343)  on  the  Transmi- 
gration of  Souls ;  Shakespeare,  Merchant  of  Venice  (Gratiano  to  Shylock). 

Harmony  of  the  Spheres.  The  relation  of  the  notes  of  the  musical  scale  to 
numbers,  whereby  harmony  results  from  proportional  vibrations  of  sound,  and 
discord  fro.n  the  reverse,  led  Pythagoras  to  apply  the  word  harmotiy  to  the 
visible  creation,  meaning  by  it  the  just  adaptation  of  parts  to  each  other.  This  is 
the  idea  which  Dryden  expresses  in  the  beginning  of  his  song  for  St.  Cecilia's 
Day,  "  From  harmony,  from  heavenly  harmony.  This  everlasting  frame  began." 

In  the  center  of  the  universe  (as  Pythagoras  taught)  there  was  a  central  fire, 
the  principle  of  life.  The  central  fire  was  surrounded  by  the  earth,  the  moon,  the 
sun,  and  the  five  planets.  The  distances  of  the  various  heavenly  bodies  from  one 
another  were  conceived  to  correspond  to  the  proportions  of  the  musical  scale. 
See  Merchant  of  Venice,  Act  V  (Lorenzo  and  Jessica),  for  the  Music  of  the 
Spheres ;  also  Milton,  Hymn  on  the  Nativity.  See  Longfellow's  Verses  to  a 
Child,  and  Occultation  of  Orion,  for  Pythagoras  as  inventor  of  the  lyre. 

260.  Camilla.  Pope,  illustrating  the  rule  that  "  the  sound  should  be  an  echo 
to  the  sense,"  says  : 

When  Ajax  strives  some  rock's  vast  weight  to  throw, 

The  line,  too,  labors  and  the  words  move  slow ; 

Not  so  when  swift  Camilla  scours  the  plain, 

Flies  o'er  th'  unbending  com,  or  skims  along  the  main. 

Essay  on  Criticism. 

268-281.  On  Norse  mythology,  see  R.  B.  Anderson,  Norse  Mythology,  or  the 
Religion  of  our  Forefathers  (Chicago,  1875)  ;  Anderson,  Horn's  Scandinavian 
Literature  (Chicago,  S.  C.  Griggs  &  Co.,  1884) ;  Dasent,  Popular  Tales  from  the 
Norse  (transl.  from  P.  C.  Asbjornsen,  New  York,  1859) ;  Thorpe's  translation  of 
Siemund's  Edda,  2  vols.  (London,  1866)  ;  Icelandic  Poetry  or  Edda  of  Saemund, 
transl.  into  English  verse  (Bristol,  A.  S.  Cottle,  1797) ;  Augusta  Lamed,  Tales 
from  the  Norse  Grandmother  (New  York,  1881) ;  H.  W.  Mabie,  Norse  Stories 
(Boston,  1882).  A  critical  edition  of  the  Elder  Edda  is  Sophus  Bugge's  (Chris- 
tiania,  1867).  The  Younger  Edda:  Edda  Snorra  Sturlasonar,  2  vols.  (Hafniae, 
1848-1852) ;  by  Thorleif  Jonsson  (Copenhagen,  1875) ;  Translation :  Anderson's 
Younger  Edda  (Chicago,  S.  C.  Griggs  &  Co.,  i88o)  (see  references  at  foot  of  pp. 
458-461  and  in  C.  282).  Illustrative  poems:  Gray,  Ode  on  the  Descent  of  Odin, 
Ode  on  the  Fatal  Sisters ;  Matthew  Arnold,  Balder  Dead ;  Longfellow,  Tegner's 
Drapa,  on  Balder's  Death ;  William  Morris,  The  Funeral  of  Balder,  in  The 
Lovers  of  Gudrun  (Earthly  Paradise);  Robert  Buchanan,  Balder  the  Beautiful; 


COMMENTARY  535 

W.  M.  W.  Call,  Balder ;  and  Thor.  Sydney  Dobell's  Balder  does  not  rehearse  the 
Norse  myth.  It  is  a  poem  dealing  with  the  spiritual  maladies  of  the  time,  excellent 
in  parts,  but  confused  and  uneven.  Longfellow's  Saga  of  King  Olaf  (the  Musi- 
cian's Tale,  Wayside  Inn)  is  from  the  Heimskringla,  or  Book  of  Stories  of  the 
Kings,  edited  by  Snorri  Sturlason.  Many  of  the  cantos  of  the  Saga  throw  light 
on  Norse  mythology.  See  also  the  Hon.  Roden  Noel's  Ragnarok  (in  the  Modern 
Faust),  for  an  ethical  modification  of  the  ancient  theme. 

Anses  (the  Asa-folk,  JEs'n,  etc.).  The  word  probably  means  ghost,  ancestral 
spirit,  —  of  such  kind  as  the  Manes  of  the  Romans.  The  derivation  may  be  from 
the  root  AN,  '  to  breathe,'  whence  animus  (Vigfusson  and  Powell,  Corp.  Poet.  Bor. 
I,  515).  According  to  Jordanes,  the  Anses  were  demigods,  ancestors  of  royal 
races.  The  main  cult  of  the  older  religion  was  ancestor-worship,  Thor  and  Woden 
being  worshiped  by  a  tribe,  but  each  family  having  its  own  anses,  or  deified  an- 
cestors (Corp.  Poet.  Bor.  2,  413).  Elf  was  another  name  used  of  spirits  of  the  dead. 
Later  it  sinks  to  the  significance  of  "  fairy."  Indeed,  say  Vigfusson  and  Powell, 
half  our  ideas  about  fairies  are  derived  from  the  heathen  beliefs  as  to  the  spirits 
of  the  dead,  their  purity,  kindliness,  homes  in  hillocks  (cf.  the  Irish  "  folk  of  the 
hills,"  Banshees,  etc.)  (Corp.  Poet.  Bor.  2,  418). 

The  Norse  Religion  consists  evidently  of  two  distinct  strata :  the  lower,  of 
gods,  that  are  personifications  of  natural  forces,  or  deified  heroes,  with  regu- 
lar sacrifices,  with  belief  in  ghosts,  etc. ;  the  upper,  of  doctrines  introduced  by 
Christianity.  To  the  latter  belong  the  Last  Battle  to  be  fought  by  Warrior-Angels 
and  the  Elect  against  the  Beast,  the  Dragon,  and  the  Demons  of  Fire  (Corp. 
Poet.  Bor.  2,  459). 

Odin  or  Woden  was  first  the  god  of  the  heaven,  or  heaven  itself,  then  husband 
of  earth,  god  of  war  and  of  wisdom,  lord  of  the  ravens,  lord  of  the  gallows  (which 
was  called  Woden's  tree  or  Woden's  steed).  Frigga  is  Mother  Earth.  Thor  is  the 
lord  of  the  hammer  —  the  thunderbolt,  the  adversary  of  giants  and  all  oppressors 
of  man.  He  is  dear  to  man,  always  connected  with  earth,  —  the  husband  of  Sif 
(the  Norse  Ceres).  His  goat-drawn  car  makes  the  rumbling  of  the  thunder.  Freyr 
means  lord ;  patron  of  the  Swedes,  harvest-god.  Balder  means  also  lord  or  king. 
On  the  one  hand,  his  attributes  recall  those  of  Apollo  ;  on  the  other  hand,  his  story 
appeals  to,  and  is  colored  by,  the  Christian  imagination.  He  is  another  figure  of 
that  radiant  type  to  which  belong  all  bright  and  genial  heroes,  righters  of  wrong, 
blazing  to  consume  evil,  gentle  and  strong  to  uplift  weakness :  Apollo,  Hercules, 
Perseus,  Achilles,  Sigurd,  St.  George,  and  many  another.  Hoder  is  the  "  adversary." 

Nanna,  Balder's  wife,  is  the  ensample  of  constancy ;  her  name  is  maiden. 

282.  The  Volsunga  Saga.  The  songs  of  the  Elder  Edda,  from  which  Eirikr 
Magniisson  and  William  Morris  draw  their  Story  of  the  Volsungs  and  the  Nibe- 
lungs  (London,  1870),  are  The  Lay  of  Helgi  the  Hunding's-Bane,  The  Lay  of 
Sigrdrifa,  The  Short  Lay  of  Sigurd,  The  Hell-Ride  of  Brynhild,  The  Lay  of 
Brynhild,  The  Ancient  Lay  of  Gudrun,  The  Song  of  Atli,  The  Whetting  of  Gudrun, 
The  Lay  of  Hamdir,  The  Lament  of  Oddrun.  For  translations  of  these  fragments, 
see  pp.  167-270  of  the  volume  mentioned  above.    For  the  originals  and  literal 


536  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

translations  of  these  and  other  Norse  lays  of  importance,  see  Vigfusson  and 
Powell's  Corpus  Poeticum  Boreale ;  and  Vigfusson's  Sturlunga  Saga,  2  vols.  For 
the  story  of  Sigurd,  read  William  Morris'  spirited  epic,  Sigurd  the  Volsung. 
Illustrative  of  the  Norse  spirit  are  Motherwell's  Battle-Flag  of  Sigurd,  the  Wooing 
Song  of  Jarl  Egill  Skallagrim,  and  the  Sword  Chant  of  Thorstein  Raudi;  also 
Dora  Greenwell's  Battle-Hag  of  Sigurd;  and  Charles  Kingsley's  Longbeard's 
Saga,  in  Hypatia.  Baldwin's  Story  of  Siegfried  (New  York,  1888)  is  a  good  intro- 
duction for  young  people. 

283.  The  Nibelungenlied.  The  little  book  entitled  Echoes  from  Mist  Land, 
by  Auber  Forestier  (Chicago,  Griggs  &  Co.,  1877)  will  be  of  value  to  the  beginner. 
Other  translations  are  made  by  A.  G.  Foster-Barham  (London,  1887)  and  by  W.  N. 
Lettsom,  The  Fall  of  the  Nibelungers  (London,  1874),  both  in  verse.  See  also 
T.  Carlyle,  Nibelungenlied  (Crit.  Miscell.),  Essays,  2,  220.  Modern  German 
editions  by  Simrock,  Bartsch,  Marbach,  and  Gerlach  are  procurable.  The  edition 
by  Werner  Hahn  (Uebersetzung  d.  Handschrift  A,  Collection  Spemann,  Berlin  u. 
Stuttgart)  has  been  used  in  the  preparation  of  this  account.  The  original  was 
published  in  part  by  Bodmer  in  1757;  later,  in  full  by  C.  H.  Myller,  by  K.  K. 
I.achmann  (Nibelunge  Not  mit  der  Klage,  1826) ;  by  K.  F.  Bartsch  (Der  Nibelunge 
Not,  2  vols,  in  3, 1870-18S0),  and  in  Pfeiffer's  Deutsch.  Classik.  des  Mittelalt.,Vol.  3, 
(1872);  and  by  others  (see  James  dime's  iVibeliingen lied,  Encyc.  Brit.).  Of  some 
effect  in  stimulating  interest  were  Dr.  W.  Jordan's  Studies  and  Recitations  of  the 
Nibelunge,  which  comprised  the  Siegfried  Saga,  and  Hildebrandt's  Return. 
Especially  of  value  is  Richard  Wagner's  series  of  operas,  The  Ring  of  the  Nibe- 
lung,  284-288.  In  painting,  Schnorr  von  Carolsfeld's  wall  pictures  illustrative  of 
the  Nibelungenlied,  in  the  royal  palace  at  Munich,  are  well  known ;  also  the 
illustrations  of  the  four  operas  by  J.  Hoffmann,  and  by  Th.  Pixis. 

282-283.  Historically,  Siegfried  has  been  identified,  variously,  with  (i)  the 
great  German  warrior  Arminius  (or  Hermann),  the  son  of  Sigimer,  chief  of  the 
tribe  of  the  Cherusci,  who  inhabited  the  southern  part  of  what  is  now  Hanover 
and  Brunswick.  Born  18  B.C.  and  trained  in  the  Roman  army,  in  the  year  9  a.d. 
he  overcame  with  fearful  slaughter  the  Roman  tyrants  of  Germany,  defeating  the 
Roman  commander  Varus  and  his  legions  in  the  Teutoburg  Forest  in  the  valley 
of  the  Lippe ;  (2)  Sigibert,  king  of  the  Ripuarian  Franks,  who  in  508  A.D.  was 
treacherously  slain  while  taking  a  midday  nap  in  the  forest;  (3)  Sigibert,  king 
of  the  Austrasian  Franks  whose  history  recalls  more  than  one  event  of  the  Sigurd 
and  Siegfried  stories ;  for  he  discovered  a  treasure,  fought  with  and  overcame 
foreign  nations,  —  the  Huns,  the  Saxons,  the  Danes,  —  and  finally  in  consequence 
of  a  quarrel  between  his  wife  Briinhilde  and  his  sister-in-law  Fredegunde,  was,  in 
576  A.D.,  assassinated  by  the  retainers  of  the  latter ;  (4)  Julius,  or  Claudius  Civilis, 
the  leader  of  the  Batavi  in  the  revolt  against  Rome,  69-70  a.y>.  It  is  probable 
that  in  Sigurd  and  Siegfried  we  have  recollections  combined  of  two  or  more  of 
these  historic  characters. 

Mythologically,  Sigurd  (of  the  shining  eyes  that  no  it\9J\  roight  f ace  unabashed), 
has  been  regarded  as  a  reflection  of  the  god  Balder. 


COMMENTARY  537 

Gunnar  and  Gunther  are,  historically,  recognized  in  a  slightly  known  king  of 
the  Burgundians,  Gundicar,  who  with  his  people  was  overwhelmed  by  the  Huns 
in  437  A.D. 

Atli  and  Etzel  are  poetic  idealizations  of  the  renowned  Hunnish  chieftain, 
Attila,  who  united  under  his  rule  the  German  and  Slavonic  nations,  ravaged  the 
Eastern  Roman  Empire  between  445  and  450  a.d.,  and,  invading  the  Western 
Empire,  was  defeated  by  the  Romans  in  the  great  battle  of  Chalons-sur-Marne, 
451.    He  died  454  a.d. 

Dietrich  of  Berne  (Verona)  bears  some  very  slight  resemblance  to  Theodoric, 
the  Ostrogoth,  who,  between  493  and  526  a.d.,  ruled  from  Italy  what  had  been 
the  Western  Empire.  In  these  poems,  however,  his  earlier  illustrious  career  is 
overlooked ;  he  is  merely  a  refugee  in  the  court  of  the  Hunnish  king,  and,  even 
so,  is  confounded  with  uncles  of  his  who  had  been  retainers  of  Attila ;  for  the 
historic  Theodoric  was  not  born  until  two  years  after  the  historic  Attila's  death. 

These  historic  figures  were,  of  course,  merely  suggestions  for,  or  contributions 
to,  the  great  heroes  of  the  epics,  not  prototypes ;  the  same  is  true  of  any  appar- 
ently confirmed  historic  forerunners  of  Brynhild,  or  Gudrun,  or  Kriemhild.  The 
mythological  connection  of  these  epics  with  the  Norse  myths  of  the  seasons, 
Sigurd  being  Balder  of  the  spring,  and  Hogni  Hoder  of  winter  and  darkness,  is 
ingenious ;  but,  except  as  reminding  us  of  the  mythic  material  which  the  bards 
were  likely  to  recall  and  utilize,  it  is  not  of  substantial  worth. 

In  the  Norse  version,  the  name  Nibelung  is  interchangeable  with  the  patronymic 
Giuking,  —  it  is  the  name  of  the  family  that  ruins  Sigurd.  But,  in  the  German 
version,  the  name  is  of  purely  mythical  import :  the  Nibelungs  are  not  a  human 
race;  none  but  Siegfried  may  have  intercourse  with  them.  The  land  of  the  Nibe- 
lungs is  equally  vague  in  the  German  poem ;  it  is  at  one  time  an  island,  again  a 
mountain,  and  in  one  manuscript  it  is  confounded  with  Norway.  But  mythically 
it  is  connected  with  Niflheim,  the  kingdom  of  Hela,  the  shadowy  realm  of  death. 
The  earth,  that  gathers  to  her  bosom  the  dead,  cherishes  also  in  her  bosom  the 
hoard  of  gold.  Naturally,  therefore,  the  hoard  is  guarded  by  Alberich,  the  dwarf, 
for  dwarfs  have  always  preferred  the  underworld.  So  (according  to  Werner 
Hahn,  and  others)  there  is  a  deep  mythical  meaning  in  the  Lay  of  the  Nibelungs : 
beings  that  dwell  far  from  the  light  of  day ;  or  that,  possessing  the  riches  of 
mortality,  march  toward  the  land  of  death. 

284-288.  Wagner  finished  this  series  of  operas  in  1876.  For  a  translation 
the  reader  is  referred  to  the  four  librettos,  Englished  by  Frederick  Jameson 
(Schott  &  Co.,  London),:  or  to  the  series  published  by  Thomas  Y.  Crowell  &  Co., 
New  York. 

298.  Homer  is  also  called  Melesigenes,  son  of  Meles  —  the  stream  on  which 
Smyrna  was  built.  The  Homeridae,  who  lived  on  Chios,  claimed  to  be  descended 
from  Homer.    They  devoted  themselves  to  the  cultivation  of  epic  poetry. 

Arion.    See  George  Eliot's  poem  beginning 

Arion,  whose  melodic  soul 
Taught  tlie  dithyramb  to  rolL 


53^  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

Other  Greek  Poets  of  Mjrthology  to  be  noted  are  Callimachus  (260  B.C.), 
whose  Lock  of  Berenice  is  reproduced  in  the  elegiacs  of  Catullus,  and  from  whose 
Origins  (of  sacred  rites)  Ovid  drew  much  of  his  information.  Also  Nicander 
(150  B.C.),  whose  Transformations,  and  Parthenius,  whose  Metamorphoses  fur- 
nished material  to  the  Latin  poet.  With  Theocritus  should  be  read  Bion  and 
Moschus,  all  three  masters  of  the  idyl  and  elegy.  See  Andrew  Lang's  transla- 
tion of  Theocritus,  Bion,  and  Moschus;  and  thj  verses  by  Dobson,and  Gosse 
with  which  Lang  prefaces  the  translation.  Lycophron  (260  B.C.)  wrote  a  poem 
called  Alexandra,  on  the  consequences  of  the  voyage  of  Paris  to  Sparta.  The 
Loves  of  Hero  and  Leander  were  probably  written  by  a  grammarian,  Musaeus, 
as  late  as  500  a.d. 

Translations  of  Greek  Poets.  The  best  verse  translations  of  Homer  are  those 
of  Chapman,  Tope,  the  Earl  of  Derby,  Cowper,  and  Worsley. 

An  excellent  prose  translation  of  the  Iliad  is  that  of  Lang,  Leaf,  and  Myers 
(London,  Macmillan  &  Co.,  1889);  of  the  Odyssey,  that  by  Butcher  and  Lang 
(London,  Macmillan  &  Co.,  1883);  or  the  translation  into  rhythmical  prose  by 
G.  IL  Palmer  (Boston,  Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  1892). 

The  Tragic  Poets.  Plumptre's  translations  of  .^schylus  and  Sophocles,  2  vols. 
(New  York,  Routledge,  1882);  A.  S.  Way's  translation  of  Euripides,  into  verse 
(London,  1894);  Wodhull,  Potter,  and  Milman's  translation  of  Euripides  in  Mor- 
ley's  Universal  Library  (London,  Routledge,  1888);  Potter's  ^Eschylus,  Francklin's 
Sophocles,  Wodhull's  Euripides,  5  vols.  (London,  1809).  Other  translations  of 
/Eschylus  are  J.  S.  Blackie's  (1850);  T.  A.  Buckley's  (London,  Bohn,  1848); 
E.  A.  A.  Morshead's  (1881);  and  Verrall's ;  —  of  Sophocles:  Thos.  Dale's,  into 
verse,  2  vols.  (1824);  R.  Whitelaw's,  into  verse  (1883);  Lewis  Campbell's  Seven 
Plays,  into  verse  (1883)  ;  —  of  Euripides:  T.  A.  Buckley's,  2  vols.  (London,  Bohn, 
1854-1858);  and  Verrall's. 

Other  Poets.  Lang's  prose  translation  of  Theocritus,  Bion,  and  Moschus ; 
C.  S.  Calverley's  verse  translation  of  Theocritus  (Boston,  1906).  Pindar,  —  Odes, 
transl.  by  F.  A.  Paley  (London,  1868);  by  Ernest  Myers  (London,  1874).  Trans- 
lations of  Greek  Lyric  Poets,  —  Collections  from  the  Greek  Anthology,  by  Bland 
and  Merivale  (London,  1833);  The  Greek  Anthology,  by  Lord  Neaves,  Ancient 
Classics  for  English  Readers  Series  (London,  1874);  Bohn's  Greek  Anthology,  by 
Burges  (London,  1852). 

On  Homer,  Hesiod,  Theocritus,  the  tragic  poets,  Pindar,  etc.,  see  also  Collins' 
excellent  series  of  Ancient  Classics  for  English  Readers,  Philadelphia  (Lippincott) ; 
and  the  series  entitled  "  English  Translations  from  Ancient  and  Modern  Poems," 
by  Various  Authors,  3  vols.  (London,  1810).  Also  W.  C.  Wilkinson's  College  Greek 
Course,  and  College  Latin  Course,  in  English  (1884-1886).  Of  ^Eschylus  read  the 
Prometheus  Bound,  to  illustrate  15  ;  the  Agamemnon,  Choephori,  and  Eumenides, 
to  illustrate  193,  228-230 ;  and  the  Seven  against  Thebes,  for  187.  Of  Sophocles 
read  Oedipus  Rex,  Qidipus  at  Colonus,  Antigone,  with  182-185,  etc. ;  Electra,  with 
228 ;  Ajax  and  Philoctetes,  with  the  Trojan  War ;  Women  of  Trachis,  with  162. 
Of  Euripides  read  Medea,  Ion,  Alcestis,  Iphigenia  in  Aulis  and  in  Tauris,  Electra. 


COMMENTARY 


539 


299.  Roman  Poets.  Horace  (65  b.c.)  in  his  Odes,  Epodes,  and  Satires  makes 
frequent  reference  and  allusion  to  the  common  stock  of  mythology,  sometimes 
telling  a  whole  story,  as  that  of  the  daughters  of  Danaiis.  Catullus  (87  B.C.),  the 
most  original  of  Roman  love-poets,  gives  us  the  Nuptials  of  Peleus  and  Thetis 
(for  selections  in  English  hexameters,  see  177  and  191),  the  Lock  of  Berenice, 
and  the  Atys.  Manilius  of  the  age  of  Augustus  wrote  a  poem  on  Astronomy, 
which  contains  a  philosophic  statement  of  star-myths.  Valerius  Flaccus  (d.  88  a.d.) 
based  his  Argonautics  upon  the  poem  of  that  name  by  ApoUonius  of  Rhodes. 
Statius  (61  A.D.)  revived  in  the  brilliant  verses  of  his  Thebaid  and  his  Achilleid 
the  epic  myths  and  epic  machinery,  but  not  the  vigor  and  naturalness  of  the 
ancient  style.  To  a  prose  writer,  Hyginus,  who  lived  on  terms  of  close  intimacy 
with  Ovid,  a  fragmentary  work  called  the  Book  of  Fables,  which  is  sometimes  a 
useful  source  of  information,  and  four  books  of  Poetical  Astronomy,  have  been 
attributed.  The  works,  as  we  have  them,  could  not  have  been  written  by  a  friend 
of  the  cultivated  Ovid. 

Translations  and  Studies.  For  a  general  treatment  of  the  great  poets  of 
Rome,  the  student  is  referred  to  W.  L.  Collins'  series  of  Ancient  Classics  fol 
English  Readers  (Philadelphia,  Lippincott).  For  the  Cupid  and  Psyche  of  Apu- 
leius,  read  Walter  Pater's  Marius  the  Epicurean  (London,  1885).  Of  translations, 
the  following  are  noteworthy:  Ovid,  —  the  Metamorphoses,  by  Dryden,  Addison, 
and  others;  into  English  blank  verse  by  Ed.  King  (Edinburgh,  1871);  prose  by 
Riley  (London,  1851);  verse  by  Geo.  Sandys  (London,  1626).  Virgil:  complete 
works  into  prose  by  J.  Lonsdale  and  S.  Lee  (New  York,  Macmillan);  ^neid, 
translations,  —  into  verse  by  John  Conington  (London,  1873);  into  dactylic  hexam- 
eter by  Oliver  Crane  (New  York,  1S88);  the  ^Eneids  into  verse  by  Wm.  Morris 
(London,  1876);  and  by  Theodore  C.  Williams  (Boston,  Houghton  Mifflin  Co.); 
Bks.  1-4,  by  Stanyhurst  (Arber's  Reprint)  (1582);  ^neis,  by  Dryden.  Catullus: 
transl.  by  Robinson  Ellis  (London,  1871);  by  Sir  Theodore  Martin  (Edinburgh, 
1875).  Horace  :  transl.  by  Theodore  Martin  (Edinburgh,  1881);  by  Smart  (London, 
1853);  Odes  and  Epodes  in  Calverley's  translations  (London,  1886);  Odes,  etc., 'by 
Conington  (London,  1872);  Odes  and  Epodes,  by  Lord  Lytton  (New  York,  1870); 
complete,  by  E.  C.  Wickham  (Oxford,  Clarendon  Press);  Odes,  by  A.  S.  Way 
(London,  1876)  and  Epodes  (189S).    Statius:  Thebaid,  transl.  by  Pope. 

300.  For  Scandinavian  literature,  see  footnotes  to  300,  and  references  in 
C.  268-282. 

Runes  were  "  the  letters  of  the  alphabets  used  by  all  the  old  Teutonic  tribes. 
.  .  .  The  letters  were  even  considered  magical,  and  cast  into  the  air  written 
separately  upon  chips  or  spills  of  wood,  to  fall,  as  fate  determined,  on  a  cloth, 
and  then  be  read  by  the  interpreters.  .  .  .  The  association  of  the  runic  letters 
with  heathen  mysteries  and  superstition  caused  the  first  Christian  teachers  to 
discourage,  and,  indeed,  as  far  as  possible,  suppress  their  use.  They  were  there- 
fore superseded  by  the  Latin  alphabet,  which  in  First  English  was  supplemented 
by  retention  of  two  of  the  runes,  named  '  thorn  '  and  '  wen,'  to  represent  sounds 
of  '  th  '  and  '  w,'  for  which  the  Latin  alphabet  had  no  letters  provided.    Each  rune 


540  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

was  named  after  some  object  whose  name  began  with  the  sound  represented. 
The  first  letter  was  F,  Feoh,  money ;  the  second  U,  Ur,  a  bull ;  the  third  Th, 
Thorn,  a  thorn ;  the  fourth  O,  Os,  the  mouth ;  the  fifth  R,  Rad,  a  saddle ;  the  sixth 
C,  Cen,  a  torch;  and  the  six  sounds  being  joined  together  make  Futhorc,  which 
is  the  name  given  to  the  runic  A  B  C."  —  Morley,  English  Writers,  i,  267.  See 
also  Vigfusson  and  Powell's  Corpus  Poeticum  Boreale,  2,  691,  under  Runes  and 
Rune-Stones;  Cleasby  and  Vigfusson's  Icelandic-English  Dictionary;  and  George 
Stephens'  Old  Northern  Runic  Monuments,  2  vols.  (London,  1866-1868). 

301.  For  Translations  of  the  Nibelungenlied,  see  C.  283.  For  other  German 
lays  of  myth,  —  the  Gudrun,  the  Great  Rose  Garden,  the  Horned  Siegfried,  etc., — 
see  Vilmar's  Geschichte  der  deutschen  National-Litteratur,  42-101  (Leipzig,  1886). 
See  also,  in  general,  Grimm's  Deutsche  Mythologie  (Gottingen,  1855);  Ludlow's 
Popular  Epics  of  the  Middle  Ages,  2  vols.  (London,  1865);  George  T.  Dippold's 
Great  Epics  of  Mediaeval  Germany  (Boston,  1891). 

302.  Egyptian.  See  Birch's  Guide  to  the  First  and  Second  Egyptian  Rooms, 
British  Museum ;  Miss  A.  B.  Edwards'  A  Thousand  Miles  up  the  Nile  (London, 
1876). 

For  the  principal  divinities,  see  Index  to  this  7vork. 

303.  Indian.  Max  Miiller's  translation  of  the  Rig-Veda-Sanhita;  Sacred  Books 
of  the  East,  35  vols.,  edited  by  Max  Miiller, — the  Upanishads,  Bhagavadgita, 
Institutes  of  Vishnu,  etc.,  translated  by  various  scholars  (Oxford,  1874-1890); 
Miiller's  History  of  Sanskrit  Literature  (London,  1859);  Weber's  History  of  Indian 
Literature  (London,  1878);  H.  H.  Wilson's  Rig-Veda-Sanhita,  6  vols.  (London, 
1850-1870),  and  his  Theatre  of  the  Hindus,  2  vols.  (London,  1871);  Muir's  San- 
skrit Texts,  and  his  Principal  Deities  of  the  Rig- Veda,  5  vols.  (London,  1868-1873); 
J.  Freeman  Clarke's  Ten  Great  Religions  (Boston,  1880);  the  Mahabharata,  trans- 
lated by  Protap  Chundra  Roy,  Nos.  1-76  (Calcutta,  1883-1893).  See  Indian  Idylls, 
by  Edwin  Arnold ;  The  Episode  of  Nala,  —  Nalopakhyanam, —  translated  by  Monier 
Williams  (Oxford,  1879).  Of  the  Ramayana,  a  paraphase  (in  brief)  is  given  by 
F.  Richardson  in  the  Iliad  of  the  East  (London,  1870).  Sir  William  Jones'  trans- 
lation of  the  Sakuntala ;  E.  A.  Reed's  Hindu  Literature,  with  translations  (Chicago, 
1891);  W.  Ward's  History,  Literature,  and  Mythology  of  the  Hindoos,  3  vols. 
(London,  1822).   On  Buddhism,  read  Arnold's  Light  of  Asia. 

For  the  chief  divinities  of  the  Hindus,  see  Ittdex  to  this  work. 

304.  Persian.  J.  Freeman  Clarke's  Ten  Great  Religions  ;  Johnson's  Oriental 
Religions ;  Haug's  Essays  on  the  Sacred  Language,  Literature,  etc.,  of  the  Parsis, 
by  E.  W.  West  (Boston,  1879).  In  illustration  should  be  read  Moore's  Fire- 
Worshipers  in  Lalla  Rookh. 


A  FEW   RULES   FOR   THE    ENGLISH    PRONUNCIA- 
TION OF   GREEK  AND  LATIN   PROPER  NAMES 


[These  rules  will  cover  most  cases,  but  they  are  not  intended  to  exhaust  the  subject.   The  reader  is 
referred  to  the  Latin  grammars  and  the  English  dictionaries.] 

I.  Qiia7itity.  The  reader  must  first  ascertain  whether  the  second  last  syllable 
of  the  word  is  long.    In  general  a  syllable  is  long  in  quantity: 

(i)  If  it  contains  a  diphthong,  or  a  long  vowel:  Bai(-c\s,  Ac-tae-on,  Me-X.\s, 
O-rt-on,  F/o-ra. 

(2)  If  its  vowel,  whether  long  or  short,  is  followed  hyj,  x,  or  s,  or  by  any  two 
consonants  except  a  mute  and  a  liquid  :  ^'-jax,  Meg-a-/'<7'-zus,  A-dras'-tus. 

A^ote  {a).  Sometimes  two  vowels  come  together  without  forming  a  diphthong. 
In  such  cases  the  diaeresis  is,  in  this  volume,  used  to  indicate  the  division : 
e.g.  Men-e-la'-M^,  Pe-ne'-«j-. 

Note  (b).  The  syllable  formed  by  a  short  vowel  before  a  mute  with  /  or  r  is 
sometimes  long  and  sometimes  short :  e.g.  Cle-o-/(?'-tra,  or  Cle-op'-a-tra ;  Fa.-iro'- 
clus,  or  Pat'-r^-clus. 

II.  Accent. 

(i)  The  accent  may  be  principal,  or  subordinate:  Hel^-les-pon'-tus. 

(2)  The  principal  accent  falls  on  the  second  last  syllable  {penult) :  Am-phi- 
tri'-te  ;  or  on  the  third  last  syllable  (antepenult) :  Am-phit'-ry-on. 

Note  (a)   In  words  of  two  syllables,  it  falls  on  the /<';/« //;   Cir'-ce. 
A'ote  {b)  In  words  of  more  than  two  syllables,  it  falls  on  the  penult  when 
that  syllable  is  long ;  otherwise,  on  the  antepenult:  JE-ne'-as,  Her'-cu-les. 

(3)  The  subordinate  accent : 

A'ote  (a)  If  only  two  syllables  precede  the  principal  accent,  the  subordinate 
accent  falls  on  the  first  syllable  of  the  word  :  //iJ>^/>o-CTe'ne. 

Note  (b)  If  more  than  two  syllables  precede  the  principal  accent,  the  laws  gov- 
erning the  principal  accent  apply  to  those  preceding  syllables :   Cas-st'-o-pe'-a. 

Note.  In  the  Index  of  this  work,  when  the  penult  of  a  word  is  long,  it  is 
marked  with  the  accent ;  when  the  penult  is  short,  the  antepenult  is  marked. 
The  reader  should  however  bear  in  mind  that  a  syllable  may  be  long  even  though 
it  contain  a  short  vowel,  as  by  Rule  I,  (2),  above. 

III.  Vowels  and  Consonants.  These  rules  depend  upon  those  of  Syllabi- 
cation : 

(i)  A  vowel  generally  has  its  long  English  sound  when  it  ends  a  syllable: 
H/-ro,  I'-o,  Caf-cus,  I-tho'-me,  E-do'-ni,  My-c/-n(E. 

S4I 


542  THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 

(2)  A  vowel  generally  has  its  short  English  sound  in  a  syllable  that  ends  in  a 
consonant:  Hel'-en.,  Sis'-y-pkus,  Fol-y-Y>^e'-miis.  But  e  in  the  termination  es  has 
its  long  sound  :  VLer'mes,  A-trV-des. 

(3)  The  vowel  a  has  an  obscure  sound  when  it  ends  an  unaccented  syllable : 
A-chae'-a ;  so,  also,  the  vowel  /  or  y,  not  final,  after  an  accented  syllable :  Hes- 
per'-/-des  ;  and  sometimes  /  ox  y  in  an  unaccented  first  syllable  :   Ci-\\c'-\-z. 

(4)  Consonants  have  their  usual  English  sounds  ;  but  c  and  g  are  soft  before  e, 
i,  y,  CE,  and  oe :  C/-to,  6'/-ry-on,  Gy'-ges;  ch  has  the  sound  of  k:  C/ti'-os;  and  c, 
s,  and  A  immediately  preceded  by  the  accent  and  standing  before  /  followed  by 
another  vowel,  commonly  have  the  sound  of  sh  :  Sic'-y-on  (but  see  Latin  gram- 
mars and  English  dictionaries  for  exceptions). 

IV.  Syllabication. 

(i)  The  penultimate  syllable  ends  with  a  vowel:  e.g.  Pe-«/-us,  l-tho'-m&, 
A'-trtns,  Hel'-^-nus ; 

Except  when  its  vowel  is  followed  by  x  or  by  two  consonants  (not  a  mute  with 
/  or  r),  then  the  vowel  is  joined  with  the  succeeding  consonant :  A%x-os,  Cir-ce, 
Aga.-mem-non. 

(2)  Other  syllables  (not  ultimate  or  penultimate)  end  with  a  vowel :  e.g.  /'/-rae-us  ; 
Except  when  [a)  the  vowel  is  followed  by  x  or  any  two  consonants  (not  a  mute 

with  /  or  i^)  :  e.g.  Ix-V-ox\,  Pel-o-/>c'«-ne'-sus  ;  and  when  {b)  the  syllable  is  accented 
and  its  vowel  followed  by  one  or  more  consonants :  e.g.  Aft^-ax-ag'-o-ras,  Am- 
phic'ty-on,  CEd-'i-pus. 

jVote  {a).  But  an  accented  a,  e,  or  o  before  a  single  consonant  (or  a  mute  with 
/or  r),  followed  by  e,  i,  or  y  before  another  vowel,  is  not  joined  with  the  succeed- 
ing consonant,  and  consequently  has  the  long  sound  :  Pau-jJ'-ni-as  ;  De-Wi?'-tri-us. 

Note  (b).  An  accented  «  before  a  single  consonant  (or  mute  with  /  or  r)  is  not 
joined  with  the  succeeding  consonant,  and  consequently  has  the  long  sound: 
y«'-pi-ter. 

(3)  All  words  have  as  many  syllables  as  they  have  vowels  and  diphthongs. 


INDEX  OF  MYTHOLOGICAL  SUBJECTS 
AND  THEIR  SOURCES 


[Ordinary  figures  refer  to  pages  of  the  Text.  Figures  in  italics  preceded  by  C. 
refer  to  sections  of  the  Commentary  and  incidentally  to  the  corresponding  sections 
in  the  Text. 

In  the  case  of  words  of  which  the  correct  pronunciation  has  not  seemed  to  be 
clearly  indicated  by  their  accentuation  and  syllabication,  the  sounds  of  the  letters 
have  been  denoted  thus  :  a,  like  a  in  gray ;  a,  like  d,  only  less  prolonged  ;  a,  like 
a  in  have;  a,  like  a  mfdr;  a,  like  a  in  sofa;  a  and  au  like  a  in  all ;  as,  e,  and  oe, 
like  ee  in  meet;  e,  like  e,  only  less  prolonged;  e,  like  e  in  end;  e,  like  e  in  thire; 
e,  like  e  in  h~r;  I,  like  /  va. pine ;  i,  like  i  \x\.  pin  ;  6,  like  o  in  note;  o,  like  o,  only 
less  prolonged ;  6,  like  o  in  n5t ;  6,  like  o  in  orb ;  66,  like  oo  in  foot ;  do,  like  oo 
in  moon  ;  ou,  as  in  out ;  u,  like  ii  in  i7se ;  ii,  like  the  French  u  ;  c  and  eh,  like  ^  ; 
th,  as  in  tAe ;  9,  like  j- ;  g,  like  g  in  get ;  g,  like  / ;  s,  like  z  ;  ch,  as  in  German  ac/i ; 
G,  small  capital,  as  in  German  //amdurg.] 


A'bas,  207 

Ab-syr'tus,  232;   C.  i6j-/6y  (Illustr.) 
A-by'dos,  32,  142  ;   C.  J4 
Ab'y-la,  219 
A-^es'tes,  352,  368,  369 
A-9e'tes,   1 52  ;  the  vengeance  of  Bac- 
chus, 154,  155 
A-chas'ans,  their  origin,  16;  274,  288; 
_  C.  148  (2) 
A-cha'tes,  366 
Ach-e-lo'us,  myth  of,  203,  204 ;   C.  14b- 

Aeh'e-ron,  47,  127,  327 

A-ehil'les,  75,  91,  179,  237  ;  his  descent, 
269,  272,  275,  276  ;  character  of,  274  ; 
in  the  Trojan  War,  279-30S  ;  in  Scy- 
ros,  279,  280 ;  wrath  of,  283  ;  and 
Patroclus,  296 ;  remorse  of,  299  ;  rec- 
onciliation with  Agamemnon,  300 ; 
slays  Hector  and  drags  his  body,  301- 
303 ;  and  Priam,  304-306 ;  death  of, 
307,  308,  313,  328,  345,  453  ;  C.  igo- 
194  [i),  199,207 

A'9is,  198,  200;   C.  141 


A'con,  C.  ij8 

Acontius  (a-con'shl-us),  C.  64 

A-cris'i-us,  207  ;  doom  of,  208-214;   C"- 

H9-I54 
Ac-ro-9e-rau'nian  Mountains,  118;  C.gj 
Ac-tae'on,  89;   myth  of,  120-122,  261  ; 

C.  59,  table  E  ;  95 
Ad-me'ta,  218 
Ad-me'tus,  104,  230  ;  Lowell's  Shepherd 

of  King  A.,  105,  106;  and  Alcestis. 

106-1 10 
A-do'nis,    myth    of,    126-128;     Lang's 

translation  of  Bion's  Lament  for  A., 

126-128  ;   C.  100 
Ad-ras-te'a,  5 
A-dras'tus,  264,  265 
/E-a9'i-des,  Achilles,  272 
^'a-cus,    51,     53,    246,    269;    king    of 

^gina,  73,  75;   C.  190-194  (i) 
/E-ae'a,  isle  of,  318,  324,  328 
.^-e'te§,  230-232  ;  genealogy,  C.  ij2 
M'gie,  palace  of  Neptune  near,  56 
^-gae'on,  C.  4 
^-ge'an  Sea,  177 


543 


544 


'IHE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


yt'.geus  (e'jus),  235,  250,  251,  252,  256; 
C.  61,  148  (4),  iy4 

yE-gi'na,  island  of,  53 ;  daughter  of 
Asopus,  myth  of,  64,  73-75,  169; 
plague  of  the  island,  73-75  ;   C.  61 

^'gis,  of  Jupiter,  21  ;  of  Minerva,  23, 
213 

^-gis'thus,  275,  276,  314,  315  ;  C.  igo- 
194  (2),  22S~2jo  (In  Art) 

^'gle,  a  nymph  in  pastoral  poetry 

^'gon,  185  ;   C.  i2g-ijo 

^-gyp'tus,  207  ;   C.  149-154 

iE-ne'as,  126,  r68,  206,  265,  276,  280, 
289,  290,  299-301;  C.  190-194  (5), 
20J,  245-254.    See  ^neid 

^-ne'as  Syl'vius,  king  of  Alba  Longa, 
third  in  descent  from  ^neas 

iE-ne'id,  456 ;  the  narrative  of,  346-372 ; 
from  Troy  to  Italy,  346;  the  depar- 
ture from  Troy,  the  promised  empire, 
347 ;  the  Harpies,  348 ;  Epirus,  the 
Cyclopes,  349 ;  resentment  of  Juno, 
350 ;  sojourn  at  Carthage,  Dido,  350- 
352;  PaHnurus,  Italy,  352;  the  Sibyl 
of  Cumae,  352-354,  361  ;  the  infernal 
regions,  354-358  ;  the  Elysian  Fields, 
358,  359  ;  the  valley  of  oblivion,  359  ; 
war  between  Trojans  and  Latins, 
362-372  ;  gates  of  Janus  opened,  363  ; 
Camilla,  364 ;  alliance  with  Evander, 
365-367  ;  site  of  future  Rome,  366 ; 
Turnus'  attack,  367  ;  Nisus  and  Eury- 
alus,  368-370 ;  death  of  Mezentius, 

370,  371  ;  of  Pallas  and  of  Camilla, 

371,  372;  the  final  conflict,  372;   C. 
245-260,  299 

^-o'li-a,  39 

iE'o-lus,  of  Thessaly,  16,  206,  214; 
myths  of  his  family,  229-236;  quest 
of  the  Golden  Fleece,  230-233  ;  con- 
nection with  Medea,  233-236 ;  C.  j8 
(9),  125,  148  (5),  table  I 

/E'o-lus  (wind  god),  39,  170,  175,  177, 
323,  324,  350  ;  C.jS  (9),  i2j,  148  is), 
table  I.    See  Hippotades 

/Epytus  (epl-tus),  241 

A-er'o-pe,  275  ;  genealogy,  C.  i-j2, 190- 
^94-  (2) 


.Flschylus  (es'ki-lus),  455 ;  references 
to,  265,  314-316,  C.  10-15 ;  transla- 
tions, C.  298 

iEsculapius  (es-ku-la'pi-us),  attributes 
of,  38;  myth  of,  104;  260,  296;  C. 
jS  (8),  80 

/E-se'pus,  179 

^'son,  230,  233,  234;  C.  163-167 
(Illustr.) 

^'sop,  2 

/E'ther,  3  ;  or  Light,  4 

.-E-thi-o'pi-a,  43,  97,  179,  211  ;   C.  128 

/E-thT'o-pis,  453 

.^'thra,  250,  251  ;    C.  174,  190-194  (2) 

^tna  (et'na).  Mount,  25,  96,  104,  159, 
223 ;   C.  76 

/E-to'li-a,  237 

/E-to'lus,  206;  family  of,  237-245;  C. 
H^  (3).  (5),  table  I ;  168 

Africa,  350,  447,  448 

Ag-a-mem'non,  99;  family  of,  275,  276, 
455;  in  the  Trojan  War,  280-300; 
quarrel  with  Achilles,  284, 285  ;  recon- 
ciliation, 300  ;  return  to  Greece,  and 
death,  314 ;  328  ;   C.  190-194  (2),  196 

A-ga've,  89,  153,  156,  261  ;  C.  57,  table 
D  ;    182-189,  table  N 

Age  of  Gold.    See  Golden  Age 

A-ge'nor,  father  of  Cadmus,  68,  87,  206, 
207;  genealogy,  C. 59,  148  (i),  149- 

A-ge'nor,  son  of  Priam,  301 

Aglaia  (a-gla'ya  or  a-glal-a),  one  of  the 

Graces,  26,  36 ;  wife  of  Vulcan,  26 
Aglauros  (a-glo-ros),  daughter  of  Ce- 

crops,  C.  174.    See  Herse 
Agni  (ag'ne).   See  Hindu  divinities  (i) 
A-grot'e-ra,  C.  32.    See  Diana 
Ah'ri-man,  463 
A'jax  the  Great,  son  of  Telamon,  237, 

275,  276,  280,  286,  288,  293-299,308, 

3-8,  453  ;   C.  190-194  (i),  204,  207 
A'jax  the  Less,  son  of  Oi'leus,  king  of 

the  Locrians,  a  leader  in  the  Trojan 

War,  286 
ATba  Lon'ga,  372 
Alberich  (al'ber-iG),  in  Wagner's  Ring, 

410-414,  4:9-428.    See  also  Andvari 


INDEX  OF  MYTHOLOGICAL  SUBJECTS 


545 


Al-93e'us,  216,  453 

Al-9es'tis,  106-110,  225,  282,  455  ;  C.  8j 

Al-^i'des,  216;  C.  1^6-162 ;  genealogy, 
J4g-i§4,  table  J 

Al-9in'o-us,  332-337 

Alc-mas'on,  268 

Alc-me'ne,  64,  107,  214,  215,  328 

Alcyoneus  (al-si'o-nus),  7.  See  Giants, 
Greek 

A-lee'to,  54,  363 

Aleian  (a-le'yan)  field,  215;   C.  /jj 

Alexander.    See  Paris 

A-lex'is,  a  beautiful  youth  in  Virgil's 
second  Eclogue 

Alfadur  (al'fa-dodr),  375,  395,  404.  See 
Odin 

A-lo'a-das,  or  Al-o-i'dae.    See  Aloeus 

Aloeus  (a-lo'us),  or  A-lo'as,  93 

Al-phe'nor,  son  of  Niobe,  100 

Alphesibceus  (al-fes-i-be'us),  an  ideal 
singer  in  pastorals 

Al-phe'us,  118,  119,  218;   C.  9J 

Alps,  97 

Al-thae'a,  237,  238,  240,  241,  242,  275; 
C.  168,  table  K 

Am-al-the'a,  5  ;   C.  146-142 

Amaryllis  (am-a-riris),  a  fair  shep- 
herdess of  pastoral  poetry  (Theoc- 
ritus, Virgil) 

Am-a-se'nus  river,  364 

A-ma'ta,  363 

Am'a-thus,  126,  149,  182  ;   C.  100 

Am'a-zons,  and  Hercules,  219;  and 
Theseus,  258;  at  Troy,  307  ;  C.  1^6- 
162  (Illustr.),  ijb-iSi  (Interpret.) 

Ambrosia  (am-bro'zhi-a),  95;   C.  yb 

Am'mon  (Jupiter  Ammon),  temple  and 
oracle  of,  20  ;  C.  146-147.  See  Egyp- 
tian divinities  (2) 

A'mor.    See  Cupid 

AmTphi-a-ra'us,  239,  265,  268,  451  ;  C. 
14S  (5) 

Am-phiro-chus,  268 

Am-phi'6n,  99,  100,  206,  451  ;  myth  of, 
1S~11\  from  Tennyson's  Amphion, 
76,  77  ;    C.  62 

Am-phi-tri'te,  the  Nereid,  wife  of  Nep- 
tune, 55,  198,  454 


Am-phit'ry-6n,  216 
Amphrysus  (am-fri'sus)  river,  105 
Am-y-mo'ne,  170,  217;   C.iig-120 
Amyntas  (a-min'tas),  a  lovely  boy  in 

pastoral  poetry.  See  Virgil,  Bucolics 3 
A-nac're-6n,  453,  454 
An-a-dy-om'e-ne  (risingixoxtx  the  water), 

C.  J4.    See  Venus 
An-ax-ar'e-te,  195 
An-5ae'us,  239 

Ancestor  worship  in  China,  437 
An-chi'ses,  125,  276,  280,  346-348,  353, 

359,  360;   C.  igo-ig4  (5),  243-2^7 
An-9i'le,  C.  28 
An-dras'mon,  192 
An-dro'ge-us,  252 
An-drom'a-ehe,  280,  291-293,  303,  313, 

349 ;   C.  207 
An-drom'e-da,  169;  and  Perseus,  211- 

214,  215,  216;  lines  from  Kingsley's 

Andromeda,  212  ;   C.  14^-134 
Andvari  (and'va-re),  401-405  ;  as  Albe- 

rich,  410-414,  419-428;   C.  282-283 
Angerbode  (ang'er-bo'de),  387 
An'ses  {NJ%\x,  A'sa-folk),  374,  376;  C. 

268-281 
An-tas'us,  170,  220 
An-te'a,  214 
An-te'nor,  288 
An'te-ros,  35 

An-thes-te'rT-a,  C.  42,  110-112 
Anthology,  Greek,  translations  of,    C. 

2g8 
Anthropological  method,  442 
An-tig'o-ne,  263,  264,  266,  267  ;  C.  182- 

i8g 
An-til'o-chus,  179,  299 
An-tin'o-us,  343 
An-ti'o-pe,  daughter  of  Asopus,  64, 328  ; 

myth  of,  75-77  ;   C.  62 
An-ti'o-pe,  wife  of  Theseus,  258,  259  ; 

C.  174,  table  M 
An-to'res,  370 

A-nu'bis.    See  Egyptian  divinities  (2) 
A-peries,  a  Greek  painter  of  the  time 

of  Alexander  the   Great.    See  John 

Lyly's  Alexander  and  Campaspe 
Apennines,  97 


546 

Aph-ro-di'te  (foam-born).    See  Venus 

A'pis,  oracle  of,  C.  jo8.  See  Egyptian- 
divinities  (i) 

A-pol'lo,  Phoebus,  and  his  lyre,  i8;  son 
of  Latona,  19  ;  meaning  of  names,  26 ; 
attributes,  26-29  ;  among  the  Hyper- 
boreans, the  Delphians,  his  victory 
over  Python,  26  ;  the  Pythian  games, 
his  oracles,  patronage  of  music,  etc., 
27  ;  favorite  animals,  28 ;  Shelley's 
Hymn  of  Apollo,  28;  myths  of,  91- 
117  ;  the  Paean  of  victory,  92  ;  victory 
over  Tityus  and  the  Aloadae,  92,  93  ; 
A.  and  Hyacinthus,  93, 94  ;  and  Phae- 
thon,  94-98  ;  sends  a  plague  upon  the 
Greeks  before  Troy,  98,  99  ;  A.  and 
Niobe,  99-103;  and  Psamathe  and 
Linus,  103,  104 ;  and  Coronis  and  ^s- 
culapius,  104;  and  the  Cyclopes,  104; 
in  exile,  serves  Admetus,  104-110; 
Lowell's  Shepherd  of  King  Admetus, 
105,  106;  serves  Laomedon,  no;  as 
a  musician,  Pan,  Midas,  Marsyas, 
110-112;  Shelley's  Hymn  of  Pan, 
III,  112;  loves  of  A.,  Calliope,  Cy- 
rene.  Daphne,  11 2-1 14;  Lowell's  lines 
upon  Daphne,  114;  Marpessa,  115, 
116;  quotations  from  Stephen  Phil- 
lips' Marpessa,  115,  116;  Clytie,  116, 
117;  quotation  from  Moore's  Clytie, 
117;  A.  and  Orion,  122;  and  Mer- 
cury, 150,  151;  and  Neptune,  169; 
and  Hercules,  216;  and  Daphnis, 
223;  in  Trojan  War,  283-285,  290, 
296-304,  307,  308;  Cassandra,  313; 
the  Sibyl,  353,  361  ;  interpretations 
of,  432,  434,  437,  440,  442,  445 ;  C.30, 
68,  72-73,  76-8g,  log 

A-poI-lo-do'rus,  455;  references  to,  75, 
115,  122,  125,  160,  169,  177,  201,  207, 
208,  214,  215,  230,  241,  242,  246,  and 
footnotes  passim 

Ap-ol-lo'ni-us  (of  Rhodes),  455;  refer- 
ences  to,   125,   193,   230,   242,  269; 

C.4 
Apuleius  (ap-ii-le'yus),  457  ;  references 

to,  128,  137;  translation  of,  C.sgS 
Aquilo  (ak'wi-lo),  38 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


A-raeh'ne,  myth  of,  82-84  ;   C.  6^-66 
Ar-ca'di-a,  67,  no,  217,  218,  241,  265, 

..  365'  366 

Ar'cas,  son  of  Callisto,  67,  241;   CjcS 

and  table  D 
A-re-op'a-gus,  Mars'  Hill,  on  which  the 

highest    Athenian    tribunal    held   its 

meetings.    See  St.  PauPs  address,  Acts 

17,  22 
A'res.    See  Alars 
Ar-e-thu'sa,  myth  of,  1 17-120 ;  Shelley's 

poem,  1 18-120;  and  Ceres,  162;  C. 

..  9J 

Ar'ges,  C.  4 

Ar'gives,  308 

Ar'go,  the,  223,  230,  233 ;  C.  163-167 

Ar'go-lis,  C.  i4g-i^4 

Ar-go-nau'tic  expedition,  39,  222,  230- 

233,  269,  348  ;  quotation  from  Dyer's 

Fleece,  230,  231 
Argonauts  (ar'go-nots),  the,  222,  230- 

233,  242;  W.  Morris'  Life  and  Death 

of  Jason,  232,  233;   C.  163-167 
Ar'gos  (city  and  district),  22,  23,  103, 

169,  206,  207,  214,  217,  264,  265,  268, 

..315-  370,  452 ;  c.  64, 1 49-154- 

Ar'gus,  builder  of  the  Argo,  230 

Ar'gus  (Pan-op'tes),  34;  myth  of  lo. 
Mercury,  and  A.,  65-67,  439;   C57 

Ar'gus,  Ulysses'  dog,  341 

A-ri-ad'ne,  152;  myth  of,  156,  252- 
258,  259,  270;  C.  172,  table  L,  176- 
181 

A-ri'on,  identified  with  Jonah,  440  ;  ac- 
count of,  453,  454  ;  C.  2g8 

A-ri'6n,  the  horse,  170 

Ar-is-tas'us,  112,  121,  165;  myth  of,  202, 

^  203  ;  C.  145 

Ar-is-toph'a-nes,  455 

Ar'is-totle,  reference  to,  241 

Ar'ne,  170 

Ar-sin'o-e,  104,  150 

Ar'te-mis.   See  Diana 

A'runs,  371,  372 

Ar'yan  germ-theory,  448 

Ar'yan  tribes  and  modern  descendants/ 
448,  462 

A'sa-folk.    See  Anses 


INDEX  OF  MYTHOLOGICAL  SUBJECTS 


547 


As-ca'nT-us,  C.  igo-ig4  (5).    See  lulus 
As-cle-pi'a-dae  (As-cle'pi-os),  C.  80.   See 

yEsculapius 
As'cra,  453 

As'gard,  2,  374,  389-392,  396,  397 
Asia,  68,  153,  252,  448 
Ask,  374 

A-so'pus,  73,  75;   C.  61 
As'pho-del,  the  meads  of,  49,  120 
As-sar'a-cus,  grandfather  of  Anchises, 

C.  igo-ig4  (5) 
As-syr'i-ans,  the,  C.  34 
As-tar'te,  €.34,^9 
As-te'ri-a,  C.  ibg-iby 
As-trae'a,  15;   C.  18 
As-ty'a-nax,  291-293,  303 ;   C.  igo-ig4 

(5) 

At-a-lan'ta  (the  Arcadian),  daughter  of 
lasius,  in  the  Caiydonian  hunt,  237- 
241 ;  selections  from  Swinburne's 
Atalanta  in  Calydon,  237-240 ;  A. 
and  Mars,  265 ;   C.  16S 

At-a-lan'ta  (daughter  of  Schoeneus  of 
Boeotia),  139-141  ;  extract  from  Lan- 
der's Hippomenes  and  Atalanta,  140, 
141;  cousinof  Jason,  230;  genealogy, 
C.  103  and  table  G;  148  (5),  table  I 

A'te,  300 

Ath'a-mas,  202,  229 ;  (7.  /oj,  table  G ; 
148  (2),  (5),  table  I 

A-the'na  or  A-the'ne,  445  ;  C.  2-j.  See 
Minerva 

Ath'ens,  23,  81,  82,  235,  246,  249,  250, 
252,  258,  263,  308,  317,  452 

A'thos,  Mount,  96 ;   C.  76 

At-lan'tis,  legend  of,  52.  See  Piaio^s 
Timceus 

At'las,  6,  41  ;  described,  57 ;  his  off- 
spring, the  Atlantides,  57  ;  and  Per- 
seus, 211  ;  and  Hercules,  220;  C.6; 
genealogy,  148  (5),  table  I,  and  i4g- 

154 

Atli  (at'le).    See  Attila 

Atmu  (at'moo).  See  Egyptian  divini- 
ties (i) 

A'trax,  259 

Atreus  (a'troos),  house  of,  269,  275, 
276;   C.  78,  igo-ig4  (2) 


A-tri'des,  98  ;   C.  77 

At'ro-pos,  a  Fate,  38 

At'ti-ca,  207,  243,  249,  256 

At'ti-la,  Atli,  Etzel,  404,  409;  C.  282- 
283  _ 

Audhumbla  (ou'thoom-bla),  373 

Au-ge'as,  Au-ge'an  stables,  218;  C.  ij6- 
162  (Interpret.) 

Au-gi'as.    See  Augeas 

Au-gus'tan  Age,  2,  456 

Au-gus'tus,  61,  456 

Au'lis,  280 

Au'ra,  172,  173 

Au-ro'ra,  39,  40,  43,  95,  123,  125,  148, 
160,  172, 175,  176,  269  ;  and  TIthonus, 
177-179;  mother  of  Memnon,  179, 
180;  C.38  (10),  7^j-/^^,  and  table  H 

Au-ro'ra  Bo-re-a'lis,  376 

Aus'ter,  38 

Australians,  mental  state  of  contem- 
porary native,  441  ;  myths  among, 
448 

Au-ton'o-e,  89,  121,  156,  261 

Av-a-tar'.    See  Hindu  divinities  (2) 

Av'en-tine,  Mount,  221;  C.  1^6-162 
(Textual) 

A-ver'nus,  Lake,  354 

A-ves'ta,  463 

Bab-y-lo'ni-a,  147 

Bac'cha-nals,  44,  154,  155;  C.  110-112 
Bac-chan'tes,  44,  153,  258;  C.110-112 
Bac'ehus  (Dionysus),  20;  descent  and 
attributes,  44,  45 ;  quotation  from 
Uryden's  Alexander's  Feast,  45  ;  wor- 
shipers of,  44 ;  the  Roman  Liber, 
59;  his  mother,  Semele,  72;  B.  and 
Vulcan,  91  ;  myths  of,  152-158;  his 
wanderings,  152,  153;  Pentheus,  153- 
156;  story  of  Acetes,  154,  155  ;  lines 
from  Edmund  Gosse's  Praise  of  Dio- 
nysus, 156,  157;  choice  of  Midas, 
157,  158  ;  B.  and  Neptune,  169  ;  Ari- 
adne, 257,  258 ;  interpretation  of 
ritual,  445  ;  C.  42,  bo,  110-112 
Balaustion  (ba-las'chon).  See  Brown- 
ing's Balaustion's  Adventure,  Index 
of  Authors 


548 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


I 


Bal'der,  376,  460 ;  death  of,  387-393 ; 
extracts  from  M.  Arnold's  Balder 
Dead,  388-397  ;   C.  268-281,  282-283 

Ralmung  (barmoong),  409 

Bards,  450,  458 

Bas-sarK-des,  C.  42 

l5at'tus,  a  peasant  who  informed  Apollo 
of  Mercury's  robbery  of  his  cattle ; 
or  who,  having  promised  secrecy  to 
Mercury,  told  the  whole  story  to 
Mercury  disguised,  and  was  petrified 
by  the  offended  deity 

Bau'fis,  77-80 

Bear,  Great  and  Little,  43,  96;  myth 
of,  67,  68 

Beauty  and  the  Beast,  analogy  of  inci- 
dent, C.  101-102 

Bel-ler'o-phon,  230,  290,  298,  432 ;  and 
the  Chimaera,  214,  215;   C.  ijS 

Bel-lo'na,  61  ;   C.  S4 

Be'lus,  king  of  Tyre,  206,  207,  351  ; 
genealogy,  C.  37,  table  D,  148  (i), 
i4g-i^4.    Compare  the  deity  Baal 

Belvedere  (bel-ve-der'  or  bel-va-da'ra), 
the  Apollo,  C.  30 

Berecyntia  (ber-e-sin'shi-a),  C.  41.  See 
Cybele 

Berg-risar  (berc're-sar),  376 

Berne,  Dietrich  of,  409 ;   C.  282-283 

Ber'o-e,  71 

Bible,  the  Hebrew,  440 

Bifrost  (bef'rost),  374,  377,  389,  395 

Bi'on,  Lang's  translation  of  his  Lament 
for  Adonis,  126-128;   C.  S9i  2g8 

Biorn  (be-6rn')  of  Scard'sa,  459 

Bi'ton,  80,  81  ;   C.  64 

Boeotia  (be-o'shi-a),  139, 280,  and/ajj/w 

Boeotians  (be-o'shi-ans),  170 

Bo'na  De'a,  6i 

Books  of  the  Dead  and  of  the  Lower 
Hemisphere,  462 

Bo-o'tes,  96 ;   C.  75 

Bor,  373 

Bo're-as,  38,  350;   C.  38  (9) 

Bori  (bo're),  373 

Bos'pho-rus  (the  heifer's  ford),  a  Thra- 
cian  strait,  crossed  by  lo 

Bragi  (bra'ge),  376 


Brah'ma  and  Brah'man-ism.  See/Zindte 
divinities  (2) 

Bran'stock,  398-400,  405 

Brazen  Age,  the,  15 

Breidablick  (bra'da-blik  or  brit'ap-lik), 
the  home  of  Balder 

Briareus  (bri'a-roos  or  bri-a're-us),  354  ; 
C.4,  8 

Bri-se'is,  284  ;   C.  igg 

Bro'mi-us,  C.  42.    See  Bacchus 

Bron'tes,  C.  4 

Brunhild  (broon'hilt),  405-409 ;  C.  282- 
283 

Briinnhilde  (briin-hil'de),  in  Wagner's 
Ring,  418-421,  424-430.  See  also 
Brunhild,  Brytihild 

Bru'tus,  a  mythical  grandson  of  ^'Eneas; 
fabled  to  have  colonized  the  island 
called,  after  him,  Britain 

Brynhild  (briin'hilt),  402-404;  C.  282- 
283 

Buddha  (bood'e).  Family  name,  Gau- 
tama ;  given  names,  Siddartha  ("  in 
whom  wishes  are  fulfilled ")  and 
Buddha  ("  he  who  knows ").  Born 
628  B.C.,  son  of  the  king  of  Kapila- 
vastu,  north  of  Oude,  India ;  died  in 
his  eighty-fifth  year.  Founder  of 
Buddhism,  which,  in  opposition  to 
the  dead  creed  and  forms  of  Brah- 
manism,  taught:  "(i)  Existence  is 
only  pain  or  sorrow.  (2)  The  cause 
of  pain  or  sorrow  is  desire.  (3)  In 
Nirvana  all  pain  and  sorrow  cease. 
(4)  Nirvana  is  attainable  by  the  '  no- 
ble path'  of  virtuous  self-discipline." 
Nirvajia  is  both  a  means  and  an  end. 
As  a  means,  it  is  the  process  of  re- 
nunciation by  which  the  love  of  life 
and  self  are  extinguished  ;  as  an  end, 
it  is  the  heaven  of  the  Buddhist,  a 
negative  bliss  consisting  in  absorp- 
tion of  the  soul  into  the  Infinite.  The 
soul  is  the  Karma,  the  sum  total  of  a 
man's  deeds,  good  and  evil,  —  his 
character,  by  which  is  determined 
his  state  of  future  existence.  The 
Karma  passes  through  various  earthly 


INDEX  OF  MYTHOLOGICAL  SUBJECTS 


549 


existences  in  the  process  of  renun- 
ciation described  above.  See  Edzuard 
Clodd''s  Childhood  of  Religions,  John 
Caird^s  Oriental  Religions  (Humboldt 
Library),  Encyc.  Brit.,  Sir  Edwin 
Arnold's  Light  of  Asia 

Budlung  (bood'loong),  404,  405 

Bull,  Jupiter  as  the,  69  ;   C.  59 

Bur'gun-dy,  405,  407 

Bush'men,  mental  state  of,  441 

Bu-si'ris,  an  Egyptian  despot,  who 
sacrificed  all  strangers  entering  his 
realm,  but  was  put  to  death  by 
Hercules 

Bii'to,  an  Egyptian  goddess,  identified 
by  the  Greeks  with  Leto 

Byrsa  (ber'sa),  35: 

Ca'cus,  myth  of,  221 ;   C.  1^6-162 

Cad'mus,  17,  71,  206,  207;  and  the 
dragon,  87-go,  231  ;  builds  Thebes, 
87,  89 ;  marries  Harmonia,  89  ;  curse 
upon  his  family,  89,  90,  120,  153,  202, 
229,  261,  265,  268;  C.  £7,  table  D; 
59,  table  E  ;  70 

Ca-du'9e-us,  the,  34,  151 

Ca-i'cus,  97  ;   C.  76 

Cal'a-is,  39,  230 

Cal'ehas,  281,  294,  311,  451 

Cal-lim'a-ehus,  C.  2g8 

Cal-li'o-pe,  the  muse  of  epic  poetry, 
37;  mother  of  Orpheus,  112,  165;  C. 

Cal-lir'rho-e.    See  Chrysaor 

Cal-lis'te,  C.j2,£8 

Cal-lis't5,  64,  237,  241 ;  myth  of,  67,  68  ; 

C.5S 
Cal'pe,  219 
Cal'y-don,  203,  225,  237,  265,  275;   C. 

J 46-1 4  J 
Cal-y-do'ni-an  Boar,  the,  206,  237 
Cal-y-do'ni-an  Hunt,  the,  225,  237-240 
Calypso  (ca-lip'so),  331 ;   C.  2j  1-244 
Ca-me'nae  (Antevorta,   Postvorta,  Car- 

menta,  and  Egeria).  The  name  comes 

from    the    root   of  carmeti,  song    of 

prophecy,  62 
Ca  miria,  364,  371,  372  j   C.  260 


Cam'pus  Martius  (mar'shi-us),  C.  28 
Capaneus  (cap'a-nus),  265,  266 
Cap'i-to-line  Hill,  114 
Capys  (ca'pis),  father  of  Anchises,    C 

igo-ig4  (5) 
Ca'rT-a,  125 

Car-men'ta,  62,  90 ;  C.  £o-_$j 
Car-ne'a,  C.  jo 
Car'pa-thos,  203,  204 ;  C.  14^ 
Car'thage,  350,  351 
Cas-san'dra,  276,  313,  314,  451  ;  C.  igo- 

194   (5).  -^-^6 
Cas-sT-o-pe'a,  Cas-si-e-pe'a,  or  Cas- 

si'o-pe,  211;  quotation  from  Milton's 

II  Penseroso,  211  ;  C.  i4g-i£4 
Cas-ta'li-a,  26,  87  ;  C.  30,  yo,  76 
Cas'tor,  206,  230,  237, 242-245,  275, 289 ; 

C.  jgo-ig4  (3),  (4) 
Ca-tul'lus,  457  ;  translations  of  his  Pe- 

leus  and  Thetis,  253-258,  269-273; 

note    and    translations,    C.  2gg ;    of 

poems   LXI   and   LXII,  38   (under 

Hymen) ;  of  poem  LI,  loy 
Cau'ca-sus,  11,  97,  192;   C.  76 
Cayster  (ca-is'ter),  97  ;   C.  76 
(^e-bri'o-nes,  298 
(^e-cro'pi-a,  C.  6^-66 
^e'crops,  17,  82,  207,  249;   C.  6^-66, 

176-181    (Illustr.) ;     genealogy,    148 

(4);  ^74 
^e-da'li-6n,  122 

^e-lae'no,  (i)  a  Pleiad;  (2)  a  Harpy 
^e'le-us,  160,  161,  164 
Celts,  448 
(Jen'taurs,    the,   104,   259,  274;    C.  80, 

1^6-162  (Interpret.) 
(^en-tim'a-nus,  C.  4 
■  Qe'os,  an  island  in  the  ^gean 
^eph'a-lus,  40;  and  Procris,   172-175; 

father  of  Phosphor,  175  ;  C.  123-124, 

190-194  (4) 

^epheus  (^e'fus),  211,  213 

^e-phis'sus,  26,  88,  188,  250  ;  C.  jo,  70, 
132-133 

(j"er'ber-us,  47,  135,  167,  355;  and 
Hercules,  220;  C.  4g,  1^6-162  (Inter- 
pret.) 

^er-co'pe§,  222  ;   C.  1^6-162 


550 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Qe'res,  5 ;  or  Demeter,  19 ;  attributes 
of,  43,  44  ;  favorite  animals,  etc.,  44  ; 
Eleusinian  mysteries,  44,  165;  the 
Roman,  59;  and  Psyche,  133;  wan- 
derings of,  152,  160-165;  C.  and 
Neptune,  170 ;  Erysichthon,  191,  192  ; 
C.  40,  S9,  114-117 

^er-y-ne'an  stag,  218;  C.  1J6-162 
(Interpret.) 

Qes-tus,  the,  295 

ge'ta,  57 

Ceylon,  463 

Ceyx  (se'ix),  175-177;  C.  i2j.  See 
Halcyone. 

Cha'os,  3,  4  ;   C.  3 

-Cha'ris,  youngest  of  the  Charites,  called 
also  Aglaia  (Aglai'a),  wife  of  Vulcan 

Char'i-te§.    See  Graces 

-Gha'ron,  47,  135,  354,  355,  377  ;  C.  44-46 

Charybdis  (eha-rib'dis),  255,  329,  330, 
350;   C.SO-S2 

-Chi-mas'ra,  214,  215,  354  ;   C.  iss 

Chi'os  (Scio),  122,  149,  452  ;   C.  96,  /07 

Chi'ron,  104,231,  269,  271,  274;  C.  lo- 
ij,  80,  igg 

•€ho'rus,  196 

Christ,  I,  181 

Cliro'nus  or  -Chro'nos,  439  ;   C.  4 

Chrysaor  (ehri-sa'or  or  ehris'a-or),  son 
of  Poseidon ;  sprang  with  Pegasus 
from  the  head  of  Medusa ;  by  Cal- 
lirrhoe  he  was  father  of  Geryones 
and  Echidna.  See  Michael  Field's 
Callirrho'e,  a  drama,  1884 

Chryseis  (ehri-se'is),  98,  283,  284  ;  C.  77 

Chryses  (ehri'ses),  98,  283,  284 

Chrysothemis  (chris-oth'e-mis),  daugh- 
ter of  Agamemnon,  275  ;  C.  igo-ig4 
(2) 

Cic'e-ro,  references  to  the  works  of, 
104,  196 

(^i-co'ni-ans,  the,  318 

(^i'lix,  son  of  Agenor;  brother  of  Cad- 
mus and  Phoenix ;  settled  in  Cilicia 

^im-me'ri-an,  176,  338;   C.  12^ 

gim-me'ri-ans,  the,  47,  328 

^in'y-ras,  126 

gir'9e,  201, 318, 324-330  ;C./7^,^j7-^^^ 


Cir'cus  Max'i-mus,  60 

^i-thae'ron,  Mount,  75,  155,  261  ;  C.62, 

110-112 
Cla'ros,  175 

Cle'o-bis,  80,  81  ;   C.  64 
Cle-om'e-nes,  a  sculptor  of  about  200 

B.C.,  C.J5 
Cli'o,  the  muse  of  history,  37  ;  C.j8  (4) 
Clo'tho,  a  Fate,  38 
Clymene  (clim'e-ne),  94 ;   C.  76 
Cly-tem-nes'tra,  237,  242,  275,314,  315; 

C.  igo-ig4  (3),  228-230 
Clytie  (clish'i-e   or  cli'ti-e),  116,    117; 

Thomas  Moore's  verses,  Believe  me, 

if  all  .  .  .,  117  ;   C.  gi 
Clytius  (cHshl-us),  C.  8 
Cnageus  (na'jus),  C.  32 
Cnidos  (ni'dos),  32,  126;   C.3^,  100 
Cnosus  (no'sus)  or   Cnossus  (nos'us). 

See  Gnoss7(s 
Coe'a-lus,  247 

Cocytus  (co-si'tus),  47,  327,  354 
Coeus  (se'us),  a  Titan,  64 ;  C.  4 
Col'chis,  222,  229,  231,  242  ;    C.  i^(>-i62 

(Textual) 
Co-lo'nus,  263 
Col'o-phon,  452 
Co'mus,  in  later  mythology  a  god  of 

festivity,    drunkenness,    and    mirth. 

See  Milton'' s  Masqtte  of  Comus 
Con-siv'i-us,  60 
Con'sus,  59,  60,  88  ;   C.  £0-^2 
Co'ra  (Ko're).    See  Proserpina 
Cor'inth,    32,   124,   169,    196,  214,  235, 

252,  261,  453 
Cor-nu-co'pi-a,  53,  204;  C.  146-14"/ 
Corcebus  (co-re'bus),  103 
Co-ro'nis,  104.    See  .^^culapius 
Cor-y-ban'tes,    references    to,   14,    44; 

C.  16  ^ 

Cor'y-don,  an  ideal  singer  of  pastoral 
poetry.   '^&&  Theocritus,  Idyl 4;  Virgil, 
Bucolics  7 
Cor'y-thus,  C.  221 
Cos,  an  island  off  the  coast  of  Caria 
Cot'tus,  C.  4 

Cra'non  or  Cran'non,  a  town  in  the  vale 
of  Tempe,  in  Thessaly 


INDEX  OF  MYTHOLOGICAL  SUBJECTS 


551 


Creation,  Greek  myths  of,  3  ;  Virgil's 
account  of,  360 ;  the  Norse  account 

of,  373,  374 
Cre'on,    263,    266,    267;    C.    i82-i8g, 

table  N 
Cres-phon'tes,  241,  242 
Cres'si-da,  C.  igd 
Cre'tan  Bull,  the,  218,  246;   C.  1^6-162 

(Interpret.) 
Crete,  Cre'ta,  53,  70,  71,  132,  201,  207, 

242,  246,  249,  252,  256,  275,  286,  288, 

348;   C.S9 
Cretheus  (cre'thus),  C.  148  (2),  (5) 
Cre'us,  C.  4 

Cre-ii'sa,  mother  of  Ion,  C.  1^4 
Cre-ii'sa,  wife  of  ^Eneas,  347  ;   C.  igo- 

J94  (5) 

Cre-u'sa,  wife  of  Jason,  235 

Croc'a-le,  120 

Cro'nus,  4,  5,  6,  8,  19;  rule  of,  5,  10; 
in  the  Fortunate  Isles,  52 ;  con- 
founded with  Chronos,  439  ;   C.  4 

Cu'mas,  352 

Cu-mae'an  Sibyl,  352-361 

Cu'pid  or  Cu-pi'd5  (Eros),  attributes  of, 
35,  36,  126;  Edmund  Gosse's  Eros, 
36;  Lyly's  Cupid  and  Campaspe,  C. 
38;  in  the  story  of  Apollo  and 
Daphne,  112,  113;  C.  and  Psyche, 
128-139,  457;  extracts  from  Wm. 
Morris'  Earthly  Paradise,  131,  135; 
from  Bridges'  Eros  and  Psyche,  132  ; 
from  Pater's  Marius,  133;  T.  K. 
Hervey's  Cupid  and  Psyche,  136, 
137;  Keats'  Ode  to  Psyche,  137- 
139;  in  the  story  of  Hero  and  Lean- 
der,  142-144;  Pluto  and  Proserpine, 
1 59  ;   C.  38  {i),  1 01- 1 02 

Cu-re'te§,  inhabitants  of  Crete,  noisy 
worshipers  of  Jupiter ;  later  identi- 
fied with  the  Corybantes  (worshipers 
of  Cybele) 

^/a-ne  river,  160,  162;   C.  114-117 

Qy'a-ne,  a  Sicilian  nymph 

Cybele  (sib'e-le)  or  Cybebe  (si-be'be), 
attributes  and  worship  of,  44,  141  ; 
the  Roman  Magna  Mater,  59 ;  C.  16, 
41.    See  also  Rhea 


CycHc  (sik'lik)  Poets,  the,  452 

(^y-clo'pes,  (^y'clops,  4,  6,  7,  53,  122, 
170,  185,  198-200,  332;  and  Apollo, 
104;  and  Ulysses,  320-323;  and 
^neas,  349  ;   C.  4,  141 

^ye'nus.  (i)  Son  of  Apollo.  With  his 
mother,  Thyria,  he  leaped  into  lake 
Canope,  where  both  were  changed 
into  swans.  (2)  Son  of  Poseidon,  a 
kingof  Colonaein  Troas.  He  assisted 
the  Trojans,  but  was  killed  by  Achil- 
les; changed  into  a  swan.  (3)  Son  of 
Ares,  killed  by  Hercules ;  changed 
into  a  swan.  (4)  A  friend  of  Phae- 
thon.  While  lamenting  his  friend's 
fate,  Cycnus  was  changed  by  Apollo 
into  a  swan,  and  placed  among  the 
stars 

(Jy-dip'pe  and  her  sons,  80,  81  ;  quota- 
tion from  Edmund  Gosse's  The  Sons 
of  Cydippe,  81  ;   C.  64 

(^yl-Ie'ne,  Mount,  34,  1 50 ;   C.  109 

Cynosure  (sl'no-shoor  or  sin'o-shoor), 
the,  C.jc? 

^yn'thi-a   (Diana),  31,   118,    125,    139; 

C.J2 

^yn'thus.  Mount,  in  Delos,  C.  32,  y8 

gyp'ri-an,  the,  85  ;   C.  68 

(^yp'ri-an  Lays,  452 

(Jy'pris  (Venus),  68,  69,  126,  127,  133, 

140;   C.34,sg 
(^y'prus,  island  of,  31,  32,  140,  145,  314, 

432;   C.34 
^yp'se-lus,  241 

(^y-re'ne,  112,  202,  203;   C.  14^ 
(^y-the'ra,  island  of,  31,  32  ;    C.  100 
^yth-er-e'a  (Venus),  127,  128,  134;   C 

34,  100 
^yz'i-cus,  King  of  Cyzicus  on  the  Pro- 

pontis.    Received  the  Argonauts,  but 

by  mistake  was  slain  by  Hercules  or 

Jason 

Daedalus  (ded'a-lus  or  de'da-lus)  and 
Icarus,  246-248  ;   C.  8j-86,  173 

Da'gon,  432 

Damoetas  (da-me'tas),  a  herdsman  in 
pastoral  poetry.  See  Virgil,  Bucolics  3 


552 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Da'mon,  an  ideal  singer  of  love  in  pas- 
torals.   See  Virgil,  Bucolics  8 

Dan'a-ans  or  Dan'a-i,  98,  99 

Dan'a-e,  64;  myth  of,  208,  213  ;  woven 
by  Arachne,  84 ;  Lamentation  of 
Danae,  454 ;   C.  140-1^4 

Dan'a-ids  or  Da-nal-des,  207  ;   C.  i4g- 

154 
Dan'a-us,  daughters  of,  166,  170;  house 
of,  206-228  ;   C.  S7,  table  D  ;  /^<?  (i), 

149-154 

Daphne  (daf'ne),  myth  of,  11 2-1 14; 
explanations  of  myth,  437  ;   C.  8g 

Daph-ne-pho'ri-a,  C.  jo 

Daphnis  (daf'his),  185,  222,  223-225, 
240;  lines  from  M.  Arnold's  Thyrsis, 
224,  225;   C.  i2g-i^o,  156-162 

Dar'da-nus,  124,  348;   C.  190-194  {5) 

Darkness,  3,  4 

Daughter  of  the  Skies,  story  of ;  anal- 
ogy of  incident,  C.  101-102 

Dau'lis,  249,  250 

Dawn,  goddess  of,  C.  j6.    See  Aurora 

Day,  4 

Death  (Than'a-tos),  54,  298 ;  Hercules' 
struggle  with,  107-110;   C.  49 

De-id-a-mi'a.  (i)  Also  called  Laoda- 
mi'a,  daughter  of  Bellerophon,  and 
mother  of  Sarpedon.  (2)  Daughter  of 
Lycomedes  of  Scyros,  and  mother  of 
Pyrrhus  by  Achilles.-  (3)  Also  called 
Hippodaml'a,  wife  of  Pirithoiis,  and 
daughter  of  Atrax 

Deimos  (dl'mos).  Dread,  a  son  and 
attendant  of  Mars,  24 

Del-on,    C.  12J-124 ;    genealogy,   148 

(2),  (5) 
Deiphobus  (de-if'o-bus),   280,  302;    C. 

1 90-794  (5) 
De-ja-ni'ra    or    Deianira    (de-ya-ni'ra), 

203,  225,  227,  237,  275;   C.  146-147, 

168 
De'li-a,  a  name  for  Diana  of  Delos 
De'los,  29,  247,  347  ;   C.  32 
Del'phi,  5,  113,  169,  262  ;  oracle  of,  27, 

268,    315,    317,   442;    center   of   the 

world,  42  ;   C.  30, 38  (4),  89 
Del-phin'i-a,  C.  30 


Del-phy'ne,  C.  30 

Delusion  of  Gylfi  (gil'fe),  459 

De-me'ter,  263,  442;  and  Pelops,  434; 
and  Springtide,  434 ;   C.  40.  See  Ceres 

Demigods  and  Heroes,  age  of,  16,  17  ; 
in  the  Theban  and  Trojan  Wars,  17 

De-mod'o-cus  of  Phaeacia,  337,  450 

Destinies.    See  Fates 

Deterioration,  theory  of,  436-440 

Deucalion  (du-ca'li-6n),  with  Pyrrha 
repeoples  the  world,  16;  descendants 
of,  16,  206,  207,  229;  interpretation 
of  myth,  440;   C.  19-20,  148  (2),  (5) 

Devas  (da'vas).    See  Hindu  divinities 

(I) 

Di'a,  island  of,  154,'  254;  old  name  for 
Naxos,  C.  110-112 

Di-a'na,  usually  pronounced  Di-an'a 
(Artemis),  moon-goddess,  2,  432 ; 
daughter  of  Latona,  19,  29;  meaning 
of  names,  29;  attributes,  29-31  ;  iden- 
tified with  Selene,  29,  39,  117;  her 
vengeance  on  Agamemnon,  Orion, 
and  Niobe,  30,  117,  and  ad  loc; 
favorite  animals,  31  ;  Ben  Jonson's 
Hymn  to  Cynthia  (Diana),  31 ;  among 
the  Romans,  59  ;  Lucina,  61  ;  D.  and 
Syrinx,  66 ;  punishes  Niobe,  99-103  : 
myths  of,  117-125;  Tityus,  Python, 
Daphne,  Callisto,  117  and  ad  loc; 
QLneus,  117,  237  ;  Alpheiis  and  Are- 
thusa,  1 1 7-1 20;  the  fate  of  Actason, 
120-122;  of  Orion,  122,  123;  the 
Pleiads,  123,  124;  Endymion,  124, 
125;  Procris,  172;  Echo,  188;  the 
•Naiads,  189-191;  Hippolytus,  260; 
Agamemnon  and  Iphigenia,  280,  281, 
316;  yEneas,  290;  Camilla,  364, 372  ; 
C.  32, 58,  93-98 

Dic'te,  C.  s 

Dic-tyn'na :  Diana  (Artemis)  as  pro- 
tectress of  fishermen 

Dic'tys,  a  fisherman  of  Seriphus  who 
rescued  Danae  and  Perseus  from  the 
waves,  and  intrusted  them  to  Poly- 
dectes,  his  brother 

Di'do,  114,  346,  350-352,  356;  C.  89, 
245-234 


INDEX  OF  MYTHOLOGICAL  SUBJECTS 


55. 


Dietrich  (de'tric),  409;   C.  282-28J 
Di'ke,  personification  of  justice 
Din-dy-me'ne,  a  surname   of    Cybele; 

from  Mount  Dindymus  in  Phrygia ; 

C.  41 
Di'-o-mede,  son  of  Tydeus  ;  contest  with 

Mars,    84-86;    in   Trojan  War,  2S0, 

289,  290^  297,  309,  310,  314;   C.  68 
Di-o-me'des,  son  of  Mars^  owner  of  the 

man-eating  mares,  218 
Di-o'ne,  mother  of  Venus  (Aphrodite), 

19,  290;   C.  26, 34 
Dionysia  (di-o-nishl-a),  C.  42,  1 10-112 
Dionysus  (di-o-ni'sus).    See  Bacchus 
Di-os-cu'ri.    See  Tyndaridce 
Di'rse.    See  Furies 
Dir'ge,  75 
Dis,  83.   See  Pluto 
Discord,    Dis-cor'di-a    (Eris),    24,    41 ; 

apple  of,  277,  278 
Dith'y-ramb,  of  Arion,  454 
Division  of   the  world   among   Greek 

gods,  6 
Do-do'na,  oracle  of,  19,  20  ;  C.  24-2^,^0 
Dol'phin  and  Apollo,  C.  jo 
Don'ner,  Thor,  412,  415 
Do'ris,  55,  97,  198,  269 
Do'rus,  Do'ri-an,  16,  119,  120;   C.  gj ; 

genealogy,  103,  table  G,  148  (2),  (5) 
Dra'pas,  the,  458 
Dreams,  gates  of,  54 ;   C.  49 
Dry'ads,  the,  45,  138,   186;  myths  of, 

191-195  ;   C.  131 
Dry'o-pe,  191,  192  ;    C.  ijy 
Dwarfs,  401 
Dyaus  (cf.  Zeus,  Jupiter).    See  Hindu 

divinities  (l) 
D/nast,  the  (Pluto),  167  ;   C.  11 8 

Earth,  3,  4,  5,  8,  97  ;  Greek  gods  of,  42- 
46;  Greek  conception  of  world,  42, 
43  :  myths  of  great  divinities  of,  152- 
1 58 ;  of  divinities  of  earth  and  the 
underworld,  159-168  ;  of  lesser  divin- 
ities of,  181-197.    See  also  Gcra 

East  of  the  Sun  and  West  of  the  Moon, 
story  of  ;  analogy  of  incident,  C.  101- 
102 


E-ehid'na,  half  serpent,  half  woman,  who 
by  Typhon  bore  Cerberus,  the  Ne- 
mean  lion,  and  the  Lernaean  Hydra 

Eeh'o  (according  to  rule,  E'eho),  1S8, 
189;   C.  132-133 

Ed'das,  373,  394 ;  derivation  of  name, 
history  of  poems,  458-460 ;  transla- 
tions and  authorities,  458-460,  notes, 
and  C.  268-282 

E-don'i-des,  Mount  E'don,  C.  42.  See 
Bacchus 

Eetion  (e-e'shi-on  or  e-et'i-6n),  291 

E-ge'ri-a,  63,  260  ;   C.  £4 

Egypt,  207,  249,  447  ;   C.  149-154 

Egyptians,  442  ;  records  of  myths,  462  ;. 
studies  on,  C.  302 

Egyptian  divinities,  (i)  Those  of  Mem- 
phis were  Phtha,  Ra,  Shu  and  Tef- 
net,  Seb  and  Nut,  Osiris  and  Isis, 
Seth  and  Nephthys,  Horus  and 
Hathor.  (2)  Those  of  Thebes  were 
Amen  (Ammon),  Mentu,  Atmu,  Shu 
and  Tefnet,  Seb  and  Nut,  Osiris  and 
Isis,  Seth  and  Nephthys,  Horus  and 
Hathor,  Sebek,  Tennet,  and  Penit. 
See  Encyc.  Brit.,  and  authorities  re- 
ferred to  in  C.  302.  The  following 
lists  are  genealogically  arranged : 
(I)  Phtha,  Seb,  Ra ;  (2)  Amen,  etc. 

(i)  Phtha  or  Ptah  :  chief  deity  of  Mem- 
phis ;  perhaps  of  foreign  origin.  His 
name  means  the  "  opener,"  or  the 
"  carver."  He  is  called  "  the  Father 
of  the  Beginning,"  and  as  the  prime 
architect,  or  artificer,  recalls  the 
Greek  Hephaestus.  He  is  the  activity 
of  the  '"  Spirit,"  Neph,  Chnuphis. 
He  is  represented  as  a  mummy  or  a 
pygmy. 

Pakht  and  Bast :  a  goddess  of  two  forms, 
lioness-headed  or  cat-headed.  At 
Memphis,  Pakht  was  worshiped  as 
wife  of  Phtha  ;  at  Bubastis,  Bast  was 
adored  as  daughter  of  Isis. 

N^efer  Atiitn  :  worshiped  at  Heliopolis 
as  the  son  of  Phtha.  Eike  Osiris  (see 
below),  he  is  the  sun  of  the  under- 
world. 


554 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Seb :  the  father  of  the  Osirian  gods.  He 
is  the  god  of  earth  and  its  vegeta- 
tion ;  represented  as  a  man  with  the 
head  of  a  goose ;  he  corresponds 
with  the  Greek  Cronus ;  his  consort 
was  Nut. 

Nut :  wife  of  Seb,  mother  of  the  Osirian 
gods ;  the  vault  of  heaven ;  she  may 
be  likened  to  the  Greek  Rhea. 

Osi'ris,  or  Hesiri :  the  good  principle. 
Identified  with  the  vivifying  power  of 
the  sun  and  of  the  waters  of  the  Nile. 
In  general,  the  most  human  and  most 
beneficent  of  the  Egyptian  deities. 
He  is  the  son  of  Seb  (or,  according 
tosome,  of  Neph,  Chnuphis).  He  may 
be  likened  to  the  Greek  Apollo,  as  a 
representative  of  spiritual  light ;  to 
Dionysus  in  his  vivifying  function.  He 
wages  war  with  his  brother  Seth  (Set), 
the  principle  of  Evil,  but  is  vanquished 
by  him,  boxed  in  a  chest,  drowned, 
and  finally  cut  into  small  pieces.  His 
sister-wife,  Isis,  recovers  all  but  one 
piece  of  the  body  of  O.,  and  buries 
them.  He  becomes  protector  of  the 
shades,  judge  of  the  underworld,  the 
sun  of  the  night,  the  tutelary  deity  of 
the  Egyptians.  He  is  avenged  by  his 
son  Horus,  who,  with  the  aid  of  Thoth 
(reason),  temporarily  overcomes  Seth. 
The  myth  may  refer  to  the  daily  strug- 
gle of  the  sun  with  darkness,  and  also 
to  the  unending  strife  of  good  with 
evil,  the  course  of  human  life,  and  of 
the  life  after  death.  O.  is  represented 
as  a  mummy  crowned  with  the  Egyp- 
tian miter. 

I'sis,  or  Hes :  the  wife  and  feminine 
counterpart  of  Osiris.  Represented 
as  a  woman  crowned  with  the  sun's 
disk  or  cow's  horns,  bearing  also  upon 
her  head  her  emblem,  the  throne. 

I/o'rus,  or  Har :  son  of  Osiris  and  Isis, 
who,  as  the  strong  young  sun  of  the 
day,  avenges  his  father,  the  sun  of  the 
underworld.  He  is  Horus  the  child, 
Horus  the  elder  (as  taking  the  place 


of  his  father  on  earth),  or  sometimes 
Horus  Harpocrates,  the  god  of  silence. 
As  the  latter,  he  holds  a  finger  to  his 
lips.  He  may  be  compared  with  the 
Greek  Apollo. 

Harpoc' ra-tes  :  see  Horns 

Ha'thor,  or  Atho?".  a  goddess  often 
identified  with  Isis.  She  had  the  head 
of  a  cow  and  wears  the  sun's  disk,  and 
plumes.  Her  name  means  "  Home  of 
Horus."  She  has  characteristics  of 
the  Greek  Aphrodite. 

Seth,  or  Set:  the  principle  of  physical, 
and  later  of  moral,  darkness  and  evil. 
He  is  the  opponent  of  his  brother,  or 
father,  Osiris.  Represented  as  a  mon- 
ster with  ass's  body,  jackal's  ears  and 
snout,  and  the  tail  of  a  lion. 

A^ephthys :  a  goddess  of  the  dead ;  the 
sister  of  Isis,  and  wife  of  Seth.  She 
aided  Isis  to  recover  the  drowned 
Osiris. 

A'pis :  the  sacred  bull,  into  which  the 
life  of  Osiris  was  supposed  to  have 
passed.  The  name  also  indicates  the 
Nile.  The  bull  Apis  must  have  cer- 
tain distinguishing  marks ;  he  was 
treated  like  a  god ;  and  on  his  death 
(he  was  drowned  at  twenty-five  years 
of  age)  the  land  went  into  mourning 
until  his  successor  was  found.  He  was 
worshiped  with  pomp  in  Memphis. 
See  Serapis 

Sera'pis  (or  Serapis  ;  see  Milton,  Para- 
dise Lost,  I,  y2o) :  as  Apis  represents 
the  living  Osiris,  so  S.  the  Osiris  who 
had  passed  into  the  underworld. 

Pa :  originally  the  deity  of  the  physical 
attributes  of  the  sun ;  but  ultimately 
the  representative  of  supreme  god- 
head. Worshiped  through  all  Egypt, 
and  associated  with  other  gods  who 
are  then  manifestations  of  his  various 
attributes.  He  is  the  victorious  prin- 
ciple or  light,  life,  and  right,  but  rules 
over,  rather  than  sympathizes  with, 
mankind.  He  is  of  human  form,  some- 
times hawk-headed,  always  crowned 


INDEX  OF  MYTHOLOGICAL  SUBJECTS 


555 


with  the  sun's  disk.  His  Greek  coun- 
terpart is  not  Apollo,  but  Helios. 

Mentu  :  Ra,  as  the  rising  sun 

Atmu  :  Ra,  as  the  setting  sun 

Shu  :  the  solar  light ;  son  of  Ra,  Mentu, 
or  Atmu 

(2)  Animon,  or  Amen  :  "  the  hidden,"  a 
deity  of  the  Egyptian  Thebes  ;  gener- 
ally associated  in  attributes  with  some 
other  god.  As  Amen-Ra  he  is  the 
king  of  Theban  gods,  the  divinity  of 
the  sun.  He  is  of  human  form  ;  rarely 
with  a  goat's  head,  as  represented 
by  the  Greeks.  He  corresponds  to 
the  Greek  Zeus.  As  Amen-Khem  he 
is  the  god  of  productivity,  and  is 
represented  with  a  flail  in  his  hand. 
His  consort  is  Mut,  or  Maut,  and 
their  son  is  Khuns. 

Mut,  or  Maut:  the  mother;  the  The- 
ban goddess  of  womanhood,  wife  of 
Amen-Ra.  She  corresponds  to  the 
Greek  Demeter. 

Khuns :  son  of  Ammon  and  Maut ;  a 
divinity  of  the  moon.  He  is  some- 
times hawk-headed ;  generally  in- 
vested with  the  disk  and  crescent  of 
the  moon. 

Neph,  Chnuphis,  Khniim,  Nuni,  or  Nu  : 
the  soul  of  the  universe ;  the  word 
or  will  of  Ammon-Ra ;  the  creator. 
Represented  with  the  head  of  a  ram. 

Khem,  Chem  (cf.  Milton's  Cham),  called 
also  Min :  the  energizing  principle 
of  physical  life.  Associated  with  both 
Ammon  and  Osiris.  His  counterpart 
in  classical  mythology  is  Pan,  or,  as 
god  of  gardens,  Priapus. 

Neith :  goddess  of  the  upper  heaven ; 
self-produced ;  mother  of  the  sun ; 
goddess,  consequently,  of  wisdom, 
the  arts  of  peace  and  of  war.  Lik- 
ened by  the  Greeks  to  Athena.  Wor- 
shiped in  Lower  Egypt  as  a  woman  in 
form,  with  bow  and  arrows  in  her  hand. 

Ma-t:  goddess  of  truth;  her  emblem 
is  the  ostrich  feather,  which  signifies 
truth.    She  is  the  wife  of  Thoth. 


Thoth  :  the  chief  moon-god  ;  character- 
.  ized  by  his  wisdom,  and  his  patronage 
of  letters.    Husband  of  Ma-t 

Anubis :  son  of  Osiris.  Guide  of  ghosts 

Eileithyia  (I-li-thrya)  or  Ilithyia  (il-T- 
thi'ya),  the  name  of  a  goddess,  or  of 
goddesses,  of  childbirth ;  later  iden- 
tified with  Diana ;   C.  J2 

E-lec'tra,  daughter  of  Agamemnon, 
275,  276,  315  ;  C.  igo-ig4  {2.),  228-2^0 

E-lec'tra,   a   Pleiad,    123,    124;    C.  97, 

H^  (5)'  190-194  (5) 

E-lec'try-6n,  214,  215 

Elegiac  (e-le'ji-ak  or  el-e-ji'ak)  poets  of 
Rome,  457 

Eleusinia  (el-u-sin'i-a),  Eleusinian  mys- 
teries ;  Eleusis  (e-lii'sis),  44,  165,  442  ; 
C.  114-iiy 

Eleusis.    See  Eleusinia 

Eleutho  (e-lu'th5).    See  Eileithyia 

Elfheim  (elf'ham  or  elf'him),  377,  394 

Elgin  Marbles,  C.  2^,  ijb-iSi 

E'lis,  117,  170,  and  passim;  C.  gj 

Eliudnir  (el-T-6od'ner),  377 

Elli  (el'le),  384,  386 

Elves,  394  ;   C.  268-281 

Elysium  (e-lizhl-um  or  e-liz'i-um),  Elys- 
ian  (e-lizh'an  or  e-liz'i-an)  Plain,  43, 
274,  356,  360  ;  description  of  Elysian 
Fields,  51,  52,  358,  359;  Andrew 
Lang's  Fortunate  Islands,  52 ;  C. 
44-46 

E-ma'thi-a  :  Thessaly,  or  Pharsalia 

Em'bla,  374 

Fm-^el'a-dus,  a  Giant,  7 

En-che'lT-ans,  country  of  the,  89 ;   C.  yo 

Endymion  (en-dim'i-6n),  2,  117,  237; 
myth  of,  124,  125,  201  ;  C.  g8 ;  gen- 
ealogy, 148  (3),  (5),  168 

Enipeus  (e-ni'pus),  170;   C.  iig-120 

En'na,  120,  160,  163  ;   C.  gj,  114-117 

En-y-a'li-us  :  the  horrible,  the  warlike  ; 
an  epithet  of  Mars 

Enyo  (e-ni'o),  mother,  daughter,  sister, 
or  wife  of  Mars ;  the  horror,  24 ;  also 
one  of  the  three  Graeae 

E'os,  39.    See  also  Aurora 

Ep'a-phus,  94,  207  ;   C.  76 


556 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


E-pe'us,  the   artificer  of  the   Wooden 

Horse 
Eph'esus,  Diana  of,  C.  j2 ;  Venus  of, 

C-34 
Eph-T-arte§,  93  ;   C.  8 
Ep'ics.    See    Homer,    Virgil,    Volstmga 
Saga,   Nibelungenlied,   Mahdbhdrata, 
R&mdya7ia 
Ep-i-dau'rus,  251 
Ep-ig'o-nT,  268 

Ep-i-menl-des,  a  Cretan  herdsman,  who 

awoke  from  a  sleep  of  fifty-seven  years 

to  find  himself  endowed  with  gifts  of 

prophecy,  purification,  and  priestcraft 

Epimetheus  (ep-i-me'thus),  9  ;  marries 

Pandora,  1 1  ;   C.  lo-ij 
E-pi'rus,  349 

Er'a-to,  the  muse  of  love  poetry,  t,-j 
Er'da,  in  Wagner's  Ring,  415,  418,  419, 
„  424,  425 
Er'e-bus,  4,  135,  162,   259,  363;    C.  3, 

4g,  IOI—I03 
Erechtheus  (e-rek'thus),  249;   C.  1J4 
Er-ieh-tho'ni-us,   207 ;    descendants    of, 
^  249-260;   C.  148  (4),  IJ4 
Er-ich-tho'ni-us,  son  of  Dardanus  and 

fourth  king  of  Troy,  C.  igo-ig4  (5) 
E-rid'a-nus,  98  ;   C.  yd 
Erinys   (e-rin'is  or  e-ri'nis),  E-rin'y-es. 

See  Furies 
Er-i-phy'le,  265,  266,  268 ;   C.  fo 
E'ris,  24,  41.    See  Discord 
E'ros,  3,  4;   C.3,38{\).    See  Cufid 
Er-y-9i'na,    Venus,    to    whom    Mount 
Eryx  and  the  city  of  that  name,  with 
its   temple    of   Venus,  were  sacred, 
„  255;   C.34 

Er-y-man'thus,    Mount,    119;    boar   of, 
^217;   C.g3,  136-162 
Er-y-sich'thon,  myth  of,  191,  192 
Er-y-the'a,  island  of,  219 
Er-y-the'is,  one  of  the  Hesperides 
E'ryx,  Mount,  32,  159;   C.  114-11^ 
Eskimos,  449 

E-te'o-cles,  264, 266 ;  C.  i82-i8g,  table  N 
Etruscans,  63,  367 

Etzel  (et'sel).  Lament  over  the  Heroes 
of,  461.    See  Attila 


Euboea  (u-he'a),  56 

Eu-he'mer-us    or   Eu-hem'er-us    (Eue- 
merus),  Eu-he-mer-is'tic  or  Eu-hem- 
er-is'tic,  436 
Eu-mae'us,  339,  340,  343 
Eu-men'i-des,  256;   C.  4g.    '&qg:  Ftiries 
Eu-mol'pus,  Eu-mol'pT-dae,  a  Thracian 
singer  and  his  descendants,  priests  of 
Demeter  in  the  Eleusinian  mysteries 
Eu-phra'tes,  97 

Eu-phros'y-ne,  one  of  the  Graces,  36 
Eu-rip'i-des,  455;  references   to,    no, 
215,  242,  261,  265,  266,  281,313,315, 
316;  translations,  C.  2g8 
Eu-ro'pa,  64,  207,  246  ;  myth  of,  68-71  ; 
portrayed    by    Arachne,    84 ;    C.  57, 
table  D ;  jg  and  table  E 
Eu-ro'tas,  253 
Eu'rus,  38 

Eu-ry'a-le,  one  of  the  Gorgons 
Eu-ry'a-lus,  36S-370 
Eu-ryb'i-e,  a  Titan,  wife  of  Creiis,  C.  4 
Eti-ry-cle'a,  341 

Eu-ryd'i-9e,  165-168,  202,  203;   C.  118 
Eu-ryl'o-chus,  324,  325 
Eu-ryn'o-me,  36,  90 ;   C.  4,  7/ 
Eu-ry-pha-es'sa,  C.  4 
Eurystheus  (u-ris'thus),  216-220 
Eurytion  (H-rishl-on  or  u-rit'i-on),  219, 

259 
Eu-ter'pe,  the  muse  of  lyric  poetry,  37  ; 

C.38  (4) 
Euxine  (uk'sin)  Sea,  231 
E-vad'ne,  266 
E-van'der,  365-367 
Eve  and  the  apple,  440 
E-ve'nus,  115 
E'vi-us,  C.  42.    See  Bacchus 

Fable,    definition  of,   i  ;    distinguished 

from  myth,  1-2  ;  some  writers  of,  2 
Fafner  (fav'ner),  Fafnir,  412,  415,  419, 

420,  422,  423,  427 
Fafnir  (fav'ner),   Fafner,  400,  401.    In 

Wagner's  Ring,  see  Fafner 
Fair,  Brown,  and  Trembling,  story  of  ; 

analogy  of  incident,  C.  101-102 
Famine,  personified,  192 


INDEX  OF  MYTHOLOGICAL  SUBJECTS 


557 


Farbauti  (far'bou-te),  377 

Fa'solt,  412,  415 

Fas'ti,  Ovid's,  456 

Fate  (Greek  A-nan'ke,  Latin  Fa'tuni), 
the  necessity  above  and  behind  gods 
as  well  as  men 

Fates,  the  (Greek  Moe'ra:,  Latin  Par'ar), 
subject  to  Jupiter ;  their  office,  38, 
106,  107,  163,  167,  237,  240,  269; 
daughters  of  Themis,  or  of  Night,  38 ; 
song  of,  272;   C.38  (6),  4g 

Fau'na,  6i 

Fau'ni,  Fauns,  61,  153,  185,  186,  190, 
195  ;   C.  54,  131 

Fau'nus,  61,  198,  362 

Fa-vo'ni-us,  38 

Fen'ris,  377,  378,387,  395,  396 

Fensahr  (fen-sa-ler'),  387,  389 

Fe-ro'ni-a,  63 ;  also  worshiped  in  the 
mart  as  a  goddess  of  commerce ;  a 
Sabine  deity 

Fi'des,  63 

Flood,  the,  in  Greece,  15 

Flo'ra,  61 ;  loved  by  Zephyrus,  39 ;  C.^4 

Fon-ti-na'li-a,  62 

Fon'tus,  62 

For-tu'na,  63 

Fox  and  Grapes,  reference  to,  i 

Freia  (fre'a),  Freya,  412-415.  See 
Freya 

Freki  (fra'ke),  375 

Freya  (fra'a),  Freia,  377-380,  393- 
See  Freia 

Freyr  (fra"r)  or  Froh  (fro),  377,  386, 
387^  393-395'  412  ;  C.  268-281 

Frick'a  or  Frig'ga,  412,  415,  418^  420 

Frig'ga  or  Frick'a,  374,  387,  389,  393  ; 
C.  268-281 

Froh  (fro)  or  Freyr  (fra"r),  412,  413,  415 

Frost  giant  (Ymir),  373 

Frost  giants,  376,  378,  3S0,  393,  395 

Furies,  Fu'ri-ae  (E-rin'y-es,  Di'ras,  Eu- 
menl-des,  Sem'nae :  A-lec'to,  Ti-siph'- 
o-ne,  Me-gas'ra),  5,  51,  354,  357;  at- 
tendants of  Proserpine,  53,  54 ;  mol- 
lified by  Orpheus,  166;  avengers  of 
Ibycus,  196,  197 ;  Orestes  pursued 
by,  316;   C.  4g,  140 


Gasa  (je'a),  Ge,  or  Ter'ra,  4,  5,  6,  44, 
220;  the  Roman  Tellus,  59.  See 
Farik 

Gal-a-te/a,  the  Nereid,  55,  185  ;  myth 
of  Acis,  Polyphemus,  and  G.,  198- 
200 ;   C.  141 

Gal-a-te'a  and  Pyg-ma'li-6n,  147;  C.io^ 

Gandharvas  (gund-hur'wa§).  See  Hindu 
divinities  (2) 

Gan'ges,  97 

Gan-y-me'da,  a  name  of  Hebe 

Gan'y-mede,  36 ;   C.  38  {2) 

Gardens  of  the  Hesperides,  C.  140-/^4 

Gathas  (ga'tas),  463 

Gautama  (gou'ta-ma).    See  Buddha 

Ge.    See  Gcea  and  Faiih 

Gel'li-us,  reference  to,  60 

Gem'i-nl.    See  Tyndarida: 

Ge'nius,    the    Roman    tutelary    spirit, 

_  62,  181 

Ger'da,  387 

Geri  (ga're),  374 

German  heroes,  myths,  and  lays,  2, 
405-409  ;   C.  283-288, 301 

German  mythology,  narrative  of,  405- 
409  ;  records  of,  448,  460,  461  ;  trans- 
lations and  authorities,  C.  283-288 

Ger'not,  407 

Gerj'on  (je'ri-6n),  son  of  Chrysaor  and 
Callirrhoe,  219 

Giallar  (gial'lar),  395 

Giants,  Greek  (Gi-gan'tes),  2,  5  ;  war  of, 
7,  8,  159  ;  interpretation  of,  440  ;  C.  8 

Giants,  Norse,  373,  376,  412 

Gibichungs  (ge'bic-dongs),  426-429 

Ginnungagap  (gin'noon-ga-gjip'),  373 

Giselher  (ge'zel-her),  407 

Giuki  (giu'ke),  403 

Gladsheim  (glats'ham  or  glats'hlm),  374 

Glau'^e  (or  Cre-u'sa),  235;  C.  /63-167 
(Interpret.) 

Glau'cus,  formerly  a  fisherman  of  Boeo- 
tia,  afterward  a  sea-god,  58,  204 ;  C. 
142.  Sometimes  confused  in  mythol- 
ogy with  the  following : 

Glau'cus  of  Corinth,  son  of  Sisyphus 
and  father  of  Bellerophon,  200,  201, 
214 


558 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Glau'cus,  grandson  of  Bellerophon,  in 
the  Trojan  War,  280,  290 

Gleipnir  (glap'ner),  378 

Glis'ten-heath,  401 

Glyptothek  (glip-to-tak')  at  Munich,  of 
King  Louis  I  of  Bavaria ;  one  of  the 
finest  collections  of  ancient  statuary 
in  the  world 

Gnossus  (nos'us),  Cnosus,  Cnossus,  the 
ancient  capital  of  Crete ;  home  of 
Minos,  256 

Gods,  the  Egyptian.  See  Egyptian 
div  2711  ties 

Gods,  the  great,  of  Greece,  origin  of, 
4,  8;  home  of,  18;  enumerated,  19; 
number  of,  discussed  by  Gladstone, 
C.  2^ ;  attributes  of  gods  of  Olympus, 
19-41 ;  lesser  divinities  of  Olympus, 
35-41  ;  Greek  gods  of  the  earth,  42- 
46;  Greek  gods  of  the  underworld, 
47-54 ;  Greek  gods  of  the  waters, 
55-58  ;  gods  common  to  Greece  and 
Italy,  59 ;  distinctively  Roman,  59- 
63  ;  derived  from  the  Etruscans,  63  ; 
myths  of  the  great  Greek  divinities 
of  heaven,  64-151;  of  earth,  152- 
1 58  ;  of  earth  and  underworld,  1 59- 
168;  of  waters,  169-171  ;  of  lesser 
divinities  of  heaven,  172-180;  of 
lesser  divinities  of  earth  and  under- 
world, 181-197;  of  lesser  divinities 
of  waters,  198-205  ;   C.  22,  23 

Gods,  the  Hindu.   See  Hindu  divinities 

Gods,  the  Norse,  373-397 

Golden  Age,  the,  10,  11,  59,  366;   C. 

10-15 
Golden  Ass,  the,  457 
Golden  Fleece,  quest  of,  206,  229-233, 

455 ;   C-  i(>3-i(>7 
GorgI,   a  city  of  Cyprus,   beloved  by 

Venus,  253 
Gor'di-an  Knot  (Gor'dT-us),  C.  iij 
Gor'gons     (Sthe'no,     Eu-ry'a-le,     Me- 

du'sa),    described,    57 ;     C.  140-1^4. 

See  Me  dies  a 
Goth'land,  Goths,  398,  399 
Graces,  Gratiae  (gra'shi-e),  ■Ghar'i-teg, 

30,  31,  40,  69,  181  ;  attributes  of,  and 


names,  36;  lines  by  Spenser  on  the 

Graces,  36,  37;  C.  38  {z) 
Gras'ae,  Gray-women  (Di'no,  Pe-phre'do, 

E-ny'o),  described,  57  ;  and  Perseus, 

209 ;   C.  149-154 
Gram,  401,  404,  405 
Gra'ne,  426 
Greek,  Greeks,  2,  442,  447,  448  ;  myths 

of  creation,  3;  view  of  nature,  181, 

435'    443-     S^^   ^'so    Gods,    Heroes, 

Myths 
Grey'fell,  401,  403,  405 
Grimhild  (grim'hTlt),  403 
Grim-hil'de,  427 
Gudrun  (good'roon  or  goo-drobn'),  403- 

405.    See  Gutrune 
Gullinbursti  (gool-in-boor'ste),  393 
GuUtop  (gooTtop),  393 
Gunnar      (goon'nar),      403-405.      See 

Gun  t her 
Gunther  (goon'ter),  405-409;  in  Wag- 
ner's Ring,  426-429  ;   C.  282-283 
Gutrune     (goo-troo'ne),    in    Wagner's 

Ring,  426-429 
Guttorm  (goot'torm),  403,  404 
Gy'es  or  Gy'ges,  (^en-tim'a-nus,  C.  4 
Gy'ges,  first  King  of  Lydia ;  famous  for 

his  riches 
Gyoll  (giol),  391 

Ha'des,  C.  44-46,  47,  49.    See  Pluto 
Ha'des,  realm  of,  35,  47  ;  C.  44-46.   See 

Undenvorld 
Hae'mon,  267  ;   C.  182-189,  table  N 
Hae-mo'ni-a,  177 
Hae'mus,  Mount,  96 ;   C.  76 
Ha'gen,   405,   408,   409 ;    in    Wagner's 

Ring,  419,  426-430 
Hal-9y'o-ne,  172  ;  and  Ceyx,  myth  of, 

175-177;    C.  I2S 

Ham-a-dry'ads,  186;  myths  of,  191-195 

Happy  Isles,  the,  345 

Har-mo'm-a,  24,71,  153;  and  Cadmus, 

89,  90;   necklace   of,  89,   265,   268; 

C.  70 
Har'pies,   Harpyiae   (har'pT-ye  or  har- 

pi'ye),   described,    56,   57,  348,  362 ; 

C.  50-J2  and  table  C 


INDEX  OF  MYTHOLOGICAL  SUBJECTS 


559 


Har-poc'ra-tes.  See  Egyptian  divini- 
ties (i) 

Ha'thor,  A'thor.  See  Egyptian  divini- 
ties (i) 

Heaven,  abode  of  Greek  Gods,  4,  5,  6, 
18;  attributes  of  Greek  gods  of,  19- 
41  ;  myths  of  greater  Greek  gods 
of,  64-151  ;  of  lesser  Greek  gods  of, 
172-180.    See  Olympus 

Heaven,  personified,  3.    See  Uranus 

He'be,  18,  86,  234  ;  daughter  of  Juno, 
19,  22 ;  attributes  of,  wife  of  Hercu- 
les, 36,  227  ;   C.  38  (2) 

He'brus,  168;   C.  118 

Hec'a-be.    See  Hecuba 

Hec'a-te,  described,  54 ;  232,  233,  234, 
354;   C.4g 

Hec-a-ton-chi'res,  4,  6 ;   C.  4 

Hec'tor,  275, 276,  280-306,  313  ;  C.  igo- 
194  (5)'  2oy 

Hec'u-ba,  280,  291,  292,  301-305,  312, 
313;   C.  igo-ig4  (5),  216 

Heidrun  (had'roon  or  ha-drobn'),  376 

Heimdall    (ham'dal    or    him'dal),    377, 

389.  393>  395 
Hel,  389,  391,  395 
Hel'a,  377,  387,  389-392,  395,  397 
Helen,  Hel'e-.na,  237,  242,  243,  259,  275- 

279,  287-289,  291,  301,  313,  314;   C. 

190-194  (3)>  195 
Hel'e-nus,  313,  349,  350,  451  ;   C.  igo~ 

194  (5) 

Helgi  (herge)  the  Hunding's  Bane,  460 

He-li'a-des,  98  ;   C.  76 

Hel'i-con,  Mount,  96,  453 ;   C.  76 

He'lT-6s,  confounded  with  Apollo,  27, 
39  ;  family  of,  39  ;  the  sun,  43  ;  con- 
test with  Neptune,  169;  cattle  of, 
330;   C.  4,38  {10),  7S 

Hel'le,  229;  C.  163-167 

Hel'len,  ancestor  of  the  Hellenes,  16; 
sons  of,  214,  229  ;    C.  148  (5),  table  I 

Hel'les-pont,  142,  229,  272  ;   C.  104 

Hem'er-a,  Day,  sister  of  Aether  and 
daughter  of  Erebus  and  Night,  4 

Hephaestus  (he-fes'tus),  C.  2g.  See  Vttl- 
can 

Her'a-cles.    See  He^xules 


Her'cu-les,  Her'a-cles,  7,  17,  20,  206, 
230,  237  ;  frees  Prometheus,  12  ;  pas- 
sage from  G.  C.  Lodge's  Herakles, 
12;  son  of  Alcmene,  64,  107  ;  saves 
Alcestis  from  death,  107-110;  pas- 
sages from  Browning's  Balaustion's 
Adventure,  107-1 10  ;  visits  Tartarus, 
168,  259  ;  rescues  Hesione,  170 ;  con- 
test with  Achelous,  203,  204 ;  myth 
of,  215-228;  choice  of,  216;  youth 
and  labors,  216-221;  later  exploits, 
221-225;  loss  of  Hylas,  222,  223; 
rescue  of  Daphnis,  223-225;  expedi- 
tion against  Laomedon,  225;  death, 
225-228,  455;  the  Cretan  bull,  246; 
constellation  of,  258 ;  arrows  of,  309; 
interpretations  of,  432,437,  440;  C. 
lo-ij,  1^6-162 

Her'mes,  C.  36,  log.    See  Mercury 

Her-mi'o-ne,  daughter  of  Menelaus  and 
Helen,  276,  314,  349;  corruption  of 
Harmonia,  C.  70  (Illustr.) 

Her'mod,  389^397  passim 

He'ro  and  Le-an'der,  story  of,  141-145  ; 
extracts  from   Marlowe's   Hero  and 

.  Leander,  142-144 ;  Keats'  sonnet, 
On  a  Picture  of  Leander,  145  ;  C.  104 

He-rod'o-tus,  455;  reference  to,  268, 
452 

Heroes,  the  older  Greek,  16,  17  ;  myths 
of,  206-264 ;  the  younger  Greek, 
myths  of,  265  et  seq. ;  the  Norse  and 
the  old  German,  398-409 

Her'se,  sister  of  Aglauros  and  Pandro- 
sos,  personifications  of  the  dew, 
daughters  of  Cecrops,  C.  123-124,174 

He'si-6d  (He-si'o-dus),  cited,  4,  10,  16, 
26,  31,  38,  51,  246,  and  footnotes /(zj- 
sim  ;  account  of,  and  of  his  Works 
and  Days,  and  Theogony,  453  ;  trans- 
lation by  Thomas  Cooke  in  Vol.  II 
of  English  Translations  from  Ancient 
and  Modern  Poems,  3  vols.,  London, 
1810;  see  also  C  5,  2g8 

He-si'o-ne,  169,  170,  225,  276,  280;  C. 
jgo-ig4  (5) 

Hes'per,  Hes'per-us,  31,  40,  41,  160, 
272;   C.38{\\) 


56o 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Hes-pe'ri-a,  348 

Hes-per'i-des,  Hes'per-ids,  the  sisters, 
the  garden  of,  40,  41,  57,  211,  219, 
220 ;  quotation  from  Milton's  Comus, 
40;  from  Tennyson's  Hesperides,40, 
41  ;  C.  4g  and  table  B,  i4g-ij4,  ij6- 
162 

Hes'per-is,  57 

Hes'per-us.    See  Hesper 

Hes'ti-a.    See  Vesta 

Hieroglyphs,  the,  462 

Hil-a-i'ra.  (i)  Daughter  of  Apollo.  (2) 
Sister  of  Phoebe,  daughter  of  Leucip- 
pus;  carried  off  with  her  sister  by 
Castor  and  Pollux.  (3)  The  cheerful, 
the  moon 

Hil'de-brand,  409 

Him'er-6s,  personification  of  the  long- 
ing of  love,  companion  of  Eros,  36 

Hind'fell,  401,  403 

Hindu  divinities :  arranged  logically 
as  (i)  Vedic,  (2)  Brahmanic.  For 
Buddhism  see  Buddha , 

(i)  Vedic  :  the  Aryan,  and  earliest  form 
of  Hindu  religion  ;  dealing  primarily 
with  elemental  powers  that,  in  time, 
acquired  spiritual  signification 

Vedas :  the  Sanskrit  scriptures;  from 
root,  to  know,  to  be  wise  ;  see  p.  462. 

Devas :  the  shining  ones,  the  gods  (Gk. 
iheos,  Lat.  deus) 

Dyaus :  the  shining  sky,  the  elemental 
overruling  spirit  of  the  primitive 
Aryans  (Gk.  Zeus,  'Lat./om's) 

Prithivi:  goddess  Earth,  spouse  of 
Dyaus 

Tndra :  son  of  Dyaus  and  Prithivi ;  the 
atmospheric  region ;  chief  of  the  gods, 
and  strongest ;  wielder  of  the  thunder- 
bolt, lord  of  the  plains,  bull  of  the 
heavens,  conqueror  of  the  malignant, 
thirsty  Vritra,  gatherer  of  clouds,  dis- 
penser of  rain  ;  adored  in  heaven  and 
on  earth 

Vanina :  god  of  the  vault  of  heaven 
(root  var,  to  cover ;  Gk.  Ouratios,  Lat. 
Uramis);  the  all-seeing,  the  pardoner, 
merciful  even  to  the  guilty 


Ushas :  the  dawn,  mother  of  mornings, 
brilliant  of  raiment,  golden-colored, 
spreading  far  and  wide,  everywhere 
awakening  men,  preparing  the  path- 
way of  the  sun,  and  leading  his  white 
steed  (Gk.  Eos) 

Surya :  the  god  who  dwells  in  the  sun 
(Gk.  Jlelios) 

Savitar:  the  golden-handed  sun  in  his 
daily  course ;  the  shining  wanderer, 
comforter  of  men 

Soma:  a  deification  of  the  spirituous 
"  extract "  of  the  moon-plant ;  giver  of 
strength  to  gods  and  men,  and  of  radi- 
ant light  and  joyous  immortality 

Vayu  :  god  of  the  wind 

Maruts :  deities  of  the  storm 

Agni :  the  youngest  and  one  of  the  most 
important  of  the  Vedic  gods  ;  lord  of 
fire,  born  of  two  pieces  of  wood  rubbed 
together;  youngest  of  the  deities,  giver 
of  prosperity  to  men,  their  guardian 
and  companion,  passing  between 
heaven  and  earth  "  like  a  messenger 
between  two  hamlets"  (Lat.  ignis ;  cf. 
Gk.  Hephtestus) 

I'ach :  goddess  of  speech,  teacher  of 
spiritual  worship,  promoter  of  wisdom 
and  holiness 

Vritra :  the  monstrous  snake,  drinker  of 
rain-clouds,  dark,  evil,  and  malicious, 
overcome  by  Indra  {^cf.  Apollo  and 
the  Python) 

Rakshasas :  powers  of  darkness,  com- 
bated by  Indra 

Paw«,  and  his  sister  Yami :  the  first  man 
and  woman ;  leaving  this  life  they  pre- 
pared for  those  that  should  follow 
them  blissful  abodes  in  the  other 
world,  of  which  they  are  king  and 
queen 

(2)  Brahmanic :  a  philosophical  out- 
growth of  the  Vedic  religion,  which, 
on  the  one  hand,  was  refined  into 
logical  subtleties,  intelligible  only  to 
the  learned  ;  on  the  other  hand,  crys- 
tallized into  symbols,  rites,  and  un- 
ending conventionalities 


INDEX  OF  MYTHOLOGICAL  SUBJECTS 


561 


Trimurti:  the  Brahmanic  Trinity,  con- 
sisting of  the  following  three  per- 
sons : 

Brahrna :  in  the  Rig-Veda,  a  word  for 
devotion,  prayer;  later,  for  the  su- 
preme principle  of  the  universe,  its 
source,  its  essence,  and  its  suste- 
nance. Brahma  is  the  creative  energy 
of  the  godhead,  calm,  passionless, 
remote  from  man  and  the  world.  He 
is  four-headed  and  four-handed. 

Vishnu  :  originally  a  benevolent  Vedic 
deity,  with  certain  attributes  of  the 
sun ;  adopted  by  a  sect  as  its  special 
god,  and  then  annexed  by  the  Brah- 
mans  as  a  manifestation  of  the  su- 
preme being  in  his  work  of  preser- 
vation. He  has  nine  times  assumed 
human  form,  each  incarnation  having 
for  its  purpose  the  redemption  of  man- 
kind from  oppression  or  error.  These 
incarnations  are  his  ^z^atorj.  His  ninth 
Avatar,  say  some,  was  as  Buddha  ;  in 
his  tenth  he  will  end  this  world,  and 
reproduce  Brahma,  who  will  create 
things  anew. 

Siva:  originally  a  bloodthirsty  deity, 
not  of  the  Vedic,  but  of  some  abo- 
riginal Hindu  religion ;  absorbed  in 
the  Brahmanic  godhead  as  the  mani- 
festation oi  destructive  power.  He  is 
adorned  with  a  necklace  of  skulls 
and  earrings  of  serpents. 

Sarasvati:  goddess  of  speech  (see  Vach); 
spouse  of  Brahma 

Sri,  or  Lakshmi :  goddess  of  beauty; 
spouse  of  Vishnu 

Uma,  or  Parvati  {)s.2X\,  Durga) :  the  inac- 
cessible, the  terrible  ;  spouse  of  Siva 

Gandharvas :  genii  of  music  (cf.  Cen- 
taurs) ;  retainers  of  Indra 

Lokapalas :  generic  name  for  the  Vedic 
deities  when  degraded  by  Brahman- 
ism  to  the  position  of  tutelary  spirits 

Hiordis  (he-6r'dis),  400 

Hip-po-cre'ne  (anglicized  in  poetry  as 
Hip'po-crene,  three  syllables),  C.  /jf 

Hip-po-da-mi'a,  daughter  of  Atra.x,  259 


Hip-po-da-mi'a,  daughter  of  CEnomaiis, 

170,    171,   275;    C.  131 

Hip-pol'y-ta  and  Hercules,  219  ;  C.  iy6- 
181  (Textual) 

Hip-pory-tus,  150,  259,  260;  C.  1^4, 
table  M  ;  176-181  (Illustr.) 

Hip-pom'e-don,  265 

Hip-pom'e-nes  (or  Mi-lan'i-on),  139- 
141,  230;   C.  J03 

Hip-pot'a-des,  primarily  .(liolus  II,  son 
of  Hippotes,  but  in  poetry  gener- 
ally ^olus  III,  king  of  the  winds, 
C.38{^),i2S 

Historians  of  mythology,  in  Greece, 
455  ;  in  Norway,  458-460.  See  Myth, 
Preservation  of 

Hoder  (he'der),  376,  387-389,  397; 
C.  268-2S1 

Hoenir  (he'ner),  400 

Hogni  (hog'ne),  403-405  ;  C.  282-283. 
See  Hagcn 

Ho'mer  (Ho-me'rus),  cited,  3,  4,  18,  21, 
23.  25,  31.  35'  47.  51.  75.  84-87,  91, 
99,  104,  no,  115,  123,  150,  169,  180, 
202,  214,  215,  246,  and  footnotes 
passim ;  story  of  Iliad  and  Odyssey, 
283-345  ;  relation  to  myth,  433  ;  ac- 
count of,  451,  452;  C.  5,  23,  jgs, 
2g8 

Ho-mer'ic  Hymns,  150,  177,  452 

Ho-mer'i-dae,  "  sons  of  Homer,"  lived 
in  Chios,  and  claimed  to  be  descended 
from  Homer.  They  were  hereditary 
epic  poets  ;   C.  2g8 

Horace  (Ho-ra'tius),  2,  457  ;  references 
to  his  poems,  77,  177,  207,  214; 
note  on,  and  translations,  C.  2gg 

Ho'ras.    See  Hours 

Ho'rus,  son  of  Osiris.  See  Egyptian 
divinities  (i) 

Hours,  or  Seasons,  the,  18,  22,  28,  31, 
38,  40,  94,  95,  178,  179,  181  ;   C.38  (5) 

Hrim-thursar  (rem'ther-sar),  376 

Hringham  (reng'ham),  392 

Hugi  (hoo^ge)^,  383,  385 

Hugin  (hoo'gen),  374 

Hunding  (hoon'ding),  400,  401  ;  in 
Wagner's  King,  416-420 


562 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Hun'land,  Huns,  398,  404,  409  ;   C.  282- 

283 
Huns,  the,  398 
Hy-a-9in'thi-a,  C.  jo,  75 
Hy-a-9in'thus,  93,  94,  103  ;   C.  75 
Hy'a-dej,  the,  daughters  of  Atlas,  57, 

I52>  344;   C.  110-112 
Hy'a-le,  121 
Hy'dra,    51,    354,    357;   the    Lernasan, 

217  ;   C.  1^6-162  (Interpret.) 
Hy-ge'a,  Hy-gi'a,  daughter  of  ^scula- 

pius  ;  the  goddess  of  health 
Hyginus  (hi-ji'nus),  references  to,  75, 

123,  160,  170,  208,  215,  241,  243,  246, 

249,  265,  269  ;   C.  2gg 
Hy'las,  the  loss  of,  222,   223 ;   C.  ij6- 

162  (Illustr.) 
Hy'men  (Hy-me-nae'us),  36,  165;   C.38 

(I) 

Hy-per-bo're-ans  (Hy-per-bo're-i),  26, 
42,  92  ;  Thomas  Moore's  Song  of  a 
Hyperborean,  43  ;   C.  jg,  ^4 

Hy-pe'rT-6n  or  Hy-per-i'on,  \;  C.  4. 

Hy-per-mnes'tra,  207  ;   C.  i4g-i^4 

Hypnos  (hip'nos).    See  Sleep 

I-ac'ehus,  C.  114-117.    See  Bacchus 

I-ap'e-tus,  4,  5,  6,  8 ;  C.  4 ;  descend- 
ants of,  148  (5),  table  I 

lasius  (i-a'shi-us),  237 

Ib'y-cus,  196,  197,  453  ;    C.  140 

I-ca'ri-us,  279,  338 ;   C.  igo-ig4  (3) 

Ic'a-rus,  222,  246,  247  ;   C.  lyj 

19'e-lus,  a  producer  of  dreams,  son  of 
Somnus,  C.  12^ 

I'da,  Mount,  96,  no,  278;   C.  76 

I'da,  the  nymph,  5 

I'da,  the  plain,  397 

I-dae'us,  305 

I-da'lT-um,  a  mountain  and  city  of  Cy- 
prus, dear  to  Venus,  253 

I'das,  115,  116,  243 

Idomeneus  (i-dom'e-nus),  286,  288 

Iduna  (e-doon'a),  376 

Il'i-ad,  narrative  of,  283-306 ;  a  kind 
of  myth,  433,  448 ;  history  of,  452, 
453'  463;  illustrative  of,  C.  igj; 
translations,   2g8 ;    cited,    see    foot- 


notes passim,  and  Cowper,  Derby, 
Gladstone,  Lang,  Pope,  in  Index  of 
Authors 

iri-ad,  the  Little,  453 

ITi-on,  iri-um,  179.    See  Troy 

Ilioneus  (i-li'o-nus),  100 

Ilithyia  (il-i-thi'ya).    See  Eileithyia 

Il-i-u-per'sis,  the,  453 

I'lus,  son  of  Dardanus,  died  without 
issue 

rius,  son  of  Tros,  C.  igo-ig4  {5) 

In'a-ehus,  son  of  Oceanus,  ancestor  of 
the  Argive  and  Pelasgic  races,  17, 
206;  father  of  lo,  65,  207;  ancestor 
of  Minos,  246 ;  Theban  descendants 
of,  261  ;   C.  57  and  table  D,  148  (i) 

India,  153,  447,  448;  records  of  myths 
of,  462,  463  ;  epics,  1 53,  462,  463  ; 
studies  and  translations  of  literature 
of,  C.303 

Indians,  red,  mental  state  of,  441  ; 
myths  of,  448 

Indo-Europeans,  448 

In'dra,  C.  log.  See  Hindu  divinities  (i) 

I'no,  89,  156,  202,  229,  261  ;   C.  144 

Yo,  64,  94,  207 ;  myth  of,  65-67 ; 
Ionian  Sea,  67 ;  interpretation  of 
myth,  439 ;    genealogy,  etc.,   C.  57, 

149-154 

I-ob'a-tes,  214,  215 

I-o-la'us,  217,  221 

I-ol'cos  or  I-ol'cus,  230 ;   C.  163-167 

I'o-le,  daughter  of  Eurytus,  who  refused 
to  give  her  to  Hercules,  although 
the  hero  had  fairly  won  her  by  his 
success  in  archery.  Eurytus  assigned 
as  the  reason  for  his  refusal  the  ap- 
prehension lest  Hercules  might  a 
second  time  become  insane,  and  in 
that  condition  destroy  lole  in  spite 
of  his  love  for  her.  By  some  she  is 
made  the  half-sister  of  Dryope ;  192, 
225,  432 

I'on,  C.  iy4 

I-o'm-a,  175 

I-o'ni-an  Sea,  67 

I-o'ni-ans,  origin  of,  16 ;   C.  148  (2) 

Iphl-cleg,  216,  221 


INDEX  OF  MYTHOLOGICAL  SUBJECTS 


563 


Iph-i-ge-ni'a,  275,  276;  in  Aulis,  280, 
281  ;  in  Tennyson's  Dream  of  Fair 
Women,  281  ;  among  the  Taurians, 
316;  C.  jgo-ig4  (2),  ig6,  228-2J0 
(In  Art) 

ph-i-me-di'a,  93 

'phis,  195 

ph'i-tus,  221 

'ris,  40,  41,  176,  287,  296,  304,  367  ; 
C.  38  (12) 

ron  Age,  the,  1 5 

'sis.    See  Egyptian  divinities  (i) 

slandsofthe  Blest, 51,52.  Se.e.Elysiutn 

sles,  the  Fortunate,  52.     See  Elysium 

s'ma-rus,  318 

s-me'ne,  263  ;   C.  i82-i8g 

s-me'nos,  son  of  Niobe,  100 

s'tar,  C.  34.    See  Venus 

sthmian  Games,  202 ;  C.  iyb-i8i 
(Textual) 

talian  gods,  59-63 

taly,  260,  348,  352,  360 

th'a-ca,  278,  279,  318,  337,  338,  448,  452 

t'y-lus.    See  Jtys 

'tys  (i'tis),  249 

-u'lus,  As-ca'ni-us,  362,  363,  369,  372 

x-i'6n,  166,  167,  358  ;   C.  118,  2^^-2^'j 

a'na,  61 

a-nie'u-lum,  366 

a'nus,  60,  61,  363,  366  ;   C.  ^4 

arnvid  (yarn'ved),  392 

a'sius,  Ja'sus,  I-a'sius,  I-a'sus,  father  of 

Atalanta  the  Arcadian.    See  lasius 
a'son,  206 ;  myth  of,  230-235 ;  quest 

of  the  golden  fleece,  230-233,  455; 

C.  16J-167 
o-cas'ta,  262,  263  ;  C.  182-18Q,  table  N 
onah  and  Arion,  440 
onakr  (yon'a-ker),  405 
ormunrek  (yor'moon-rek),  405 
otham,  I.    See /ut/ges  9,  7 
otunheim    (ye'toon-ham    or    ye'toon- 

him),  374,  379,  380,  394 
u'bal,  440 
u'no  (He'ra,  He're),  5,7,  19;  meaning 

of  her  names,  22;  attributes  of,  her 

descent  and  marriage,  22 ;   favorite 


cities  and  animals,  22  ;  among  the 
Romans,  59  ;  Lucina,  61;  protectress 
of  women  in  Rome,  62 ;  myths  of 
Juno  and  Jupiter,  64-81  ;  J.  and  La- 
tona,  64  ;  lo,  65-67  ;  Callisto,  67,  68  ; 
Semele,  71  ;  yligina,  73  ;  the  sons  of 
Cydippe,  80,  81  ;  Vulcan,  90,  91  ; 
Bacchus,  152;  Neptune,  169;  Hal- 
cyone  and  Iris,  176;  Echo,  188; 
Hercules,  216,  219,  227  ;  Paris,  278  ; 
in  Trojan  War,  2S4,  285,  289,  295- 
298;  ^neas,  350,  363-367,  372; 
C.26 
Ju'pi-ter  (Zeus),  5;  war  with  Titans,  5. 
6 ;  sovereign  of  the  world,  6 ;  reign 
of,  6-8  ;  creation  of  woman,  1 1  ;  sends 
a  flood  to  destroy  men,  1 5  ;  his  abode, 
18;  his  family,  19;  signification  of 
names,  19,  C.  24;  attributes,  19-21  ; 
his  oracles,  19,  20 ;  explanation  of 
his  love  affairs,  20 ;  other  children 
of,  20;  Greek  conceptions  of,  21; 
in  art,  statue  of  Olympian  Jove  by 
Phidias,  21;  J.  and  Juno,  22;  and 
Minerva,  23  ;  and  Metis,  C.  jj  ;  and 
Vulcan,  25;  and  Latona,  26,  29,  64; 
and  Dione,  31  ;  and  Maia,  34;  and 
Vesta,  35;  and  Ganymede,  36;  and 
Eurynome,  36;  and  Mnemosyne,  37  ; 
and  Themis,  38 ;  and  ^sculapius, 
38;  and  Semele,  44,  64,  71-73,  288; 
among  the  Romans,  59 ;  myths  of, 
64-80;  Danae,  64,  208;  Alcmene,  64, 
215;  Leda,  64,  242,  275;  lo,  64-67; 
Callisto,  64,  67,  68,  241 ;  Europa,  64, 
68-71,  246;  iEgina,  64,  73-75;  An- 
tiope,  64,  75-77;  Baucis  and  Phile- 
mon, 77-80  ;  treatment  of  Mars,  85, 
86  ;  the  Aloadas,  93  ;  Phaethon,  9S , 
iEsculapius,  104;  the  Pleiads,  123; 
Cupid  and  Psyche,  136;  Bacchus, 
152;  Ceres,  162;  Neptune,  169; 
Ceyx  and  Halcyone,  177;  Tithonus, 
177,  180;  the  Cercopes,  222;  Her- 
cules, 227;  Castor  and  Pollux,  243; 
Amphiaraiis,  265;  Capaneus,  266; 
Peleus  and  Thetis,  269 ;  in  Trojan 
War,    278,    285-305,    312;    Ulysses, 


564 

331  ;  /Eneas,  351,  356,  372;  Salmo- 
neus,  357  ;  interpretations  of,  434, 
437  ;  C.  5,  /0-/J-,  24-2S,  SS>  S7>  58, 
59,  60,  61 

Ju-tur'na,  62,  245 

Ju-ven'tas.    See  Hebe 

Ju-ven'tus,  63 

Kali  (ka'le).  See  Uma  under  Hindu 
divinities  (2) 

Kar'ma :  in  Buddhism,  the  sum  of  a 
man's  deeds,  good  and  evil,  which 
determines  the  nature  of  his  future 
existence.  See  Buddha  and  Metemp- 
sychosis 

Khem  (kem).  See  Egyptian  divinities  {2) 

Khuns  (koonz).  See  Egyptian  divini- 
ties (2) 

Kle'is,  C.  loy 

Ko'ra,  Ko're  (Proserpina),  107  ;   C.  8j 

Kriemhild  (krem'hilt).  The  Revenge 
of,  405-409,  461 

Kro'nos.    See  Cronns 

Lab'da-cus,  house  of,  206,  207,  261-264  ; 

C.  S7,  table    D;  148  (i);    182-iSg, 

table  N 
Lab'y-rinth,    the,    of   Crete,    246,  253 ; 

C.  172 
La9-e-dae'm6n.    See  Sparta 
Laeh'e-sis,  a  Fate,  38 
La-co'nI-a,  51,  no 
La'don,  the  serpent  that  guarded  the 

apples  of  the  Hesperides ;  slain  by 

Hercules 
La-er'tes,  278,  339  ;  genealogy,  C.  igo- 

194  (4) 
Lsestrygonians    (les-trT-go'ni-ans),    the, 

170,  324 

La'i-us,  261,  262  ;   C.  i82-i8g,  table  N 

Lakshmi  (laksh'me).  S&e  Hindu  divin- 
ities (2) 

Lamb's  month,  C.  yg 

Lampetia  (lam-pe'shT-a),  330 

Language,  disease  of,  437,  438,  446 

La-oc'o-6n,  311,  312  ;   C.  224 

La-od-a-mi'a,  daughter  of  Bellerophon, 
298 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


La-od-a-mi'a,  wife  of  Protesilaiis,  282  ; 

lines   from    Wordsworth,    282,   283 ; 

C.83 
La-om'e-don,  no,  169,    170,  177,  276, 

280;    expedition  against,    206,    225; 

C.  84,  igo-ig4  (5) 
Lap-i-thse,  259 
La'res,    distinguished    from     Penates, 

Manes,  Larvae,  etc.,  62 
La-ris'sa,  io8,  214;   C.  8j 
Lar'vae,  62 
La-ti'nus,  362 

Lat'mos,  Mount,  124;   C.  gS 
La-to'na,  Le'to,  children    of,   19;    and 

Delos,  29  ;  and  Jupiter,  64;  wander- 
ings of,  91,  92  ;  and  Niobe,  99-103  ; 

heals  /Eneas,  290  ;   C.  32,  7.2-7J 
Lau'sus,  364,  370,  371 
La-vinT-a,  362,  372 

Le-an'der,  141-145:   C.  J04.    See  Hero 
Lfeb-a-de'a,  C.  jo 
Le-byn'thos,  247 
Le'da,  64,  237,  242,  359,  275;  myth  of, 

represented  by  Arachne,  84 ;  C.  168, 

table  K ;    ijo-iyi,  igo~ig4  (3).    See 

Castor  and  Pollux 
Le'laps,  17s 
Lem'nos,  25,  122,  231,  309;  C.  g6,  107. 

163-167 
Lem'u-res,  62 
Le-nae'a,  C.  42,  110-112 
Ler-nae'an  Hy'dra,  217 
Les'bos,  149;  C.  107 
Lesser  divinities  of  heaven  among  the 

Greeks,  35-41 
Le'the,  51,  176,  359,  360;   C.  44-46 
Le'to,  C.  JO,  J2.    See  Latona 
Leucadia  (lu-ca'di-a),  454;   C.  107 
Leucippus  (lu-sip'us),  243 
Leucothea  (lu-coth'e-a),  a  sea-divinity, 

58,  202,  205,  331  ;   C.  144 
Li'ber,  59.    See  Bacchtis 
Lib'er-a,  59.    See  Proserpina 
Li-beth'ra,  168;   C.  118 
Lib-T-ti'na,  C.  48 
Lib'y-a,  97,  219;   C.  76 
Li'ehas,  226 
Lidskialf  (lids'ke-alf),  388,  389 


INDEX  OF  MYTHOLOGICAL  SUBJECTS 


565 


Li-ge'a,  205;  C.  146-147 

Light,  3,  4 

Li'nus,  216,  451  ;  lamentation  for,  103, 
104;  C.  7S,  79 

Lit-y-er'ses,  222,  223-225 

Log,  King,  referred  to,  i 

Lo'ge,  412-414,  421.    See  Loki 

Logi  (lo'ge),  382,  385 

Lo-ka-pa'las.    See  Hindu  divinities  (2) 

Loki  (lo'ke),  Lo'ge,  377-397  passim, 
400,  412 

Lo'tis,  192 

Lo'tos,  lotos-eaters,  318,  319;  extract 
from  Tennyson's  poem,  319,  320 

Love,  3,  4 

Lucian  (lu'shan),  455,  457  n 

Lii'^i-fer.    See  Phosphor 

Lu'9i'na,  61  ;  €.26 

Lu'na,  63.    See  Diana  and  Selene 

Ly-ae'us,  C.  42 

Ly-ca'6n,  300 

Lycia  (lish'i-a),  214,  298;   C.  /jj 

Lycians  (lish'i-an§),  71 

Lycidas  (lis'i-das),  a  goatherd  of  pasto- 
ral poetry.  See  Theocritus,  Idyl  7; 
Virgil,  Bucolics  g ;  Milton'' s  Elegy  on 
Edward  King,  etc. 

Lycius  (lish'i-us),  Apollo,  C.  jo 

Lycomedes  (lik-o-me'des),  260,  279 

Ly'co-phron,  C.  2g8 

Ly-cu/gus,  a  king  of  the  Edones,  who, 
like  Pentheus,  resisted  the  worship 
of  Bacchus 

Ly'cus,  75;   C.  62 

Ly'de,  189 

Lynceus  (lin'sus),  207,  243 

Lyngi  (iin'ge),  400 

Lyric  poets,  Greek,  453,  454;  transla- 
tions of,  C.  2g8 ;  Roman,  457 

Lytyerses  (lit-T-er'ses).    See  Lityerses 

Ma-cha'6n,  296,  297,  309 
Ma-cro'bT-us,  referred  to,  60 
Mae-an'der,  97,  222,  246;   C.  76,  172 
Masnades   (men'a-des).    Maenads    (me'- 
nads),  44,  45,  75,  254  ;   C.  62,  110-112 
Maenalus  (men'a-lus),  a  range  of  moun- 
tains in  Arcadia,  sacred  to  Pan,  1 1 2 


Mae-o'ni-a,  154;   C.  110-112 

Mae-on'i-des :  a  native  of  Maeonia ; 
Homer 

Mag'na  Ma'ter,  59 

Mahabharata  (ma-ha-ba'ra-ta),  462 ; 
translation,  C.  joj 

Maia  (ma'ya),  mother  of  Mercury  (Her- 
mes), 19,  34,  150  ;   C.  log 

Maia  (ma'ya),  Ma'ja,  or  Ma-jes'ta :  a 
name  for  Fauna,  or  for  the  daughter 
of  Faunus  and  wife  of  the  Roman 
Vulcan.  In  either  case,  called  Bona 
Dea 

Man,  origin  of,  Greek,  8,  9 

Ma'nes,  62 

Ma-nil'i-us,  C.  2gg 

Man'tu-a,  456 

Mar'a-thon,  258 

Mar-a-tho'nT-an  Bull,  252;  C.  1 76-181 
(Interpret.) 

Ma'ro.    See  Virgil 

Mar-pes'sa,  115,  116 

Mars  ( A'res),  one  of  the  great  gods,  19 ; 
meaning  of  names,  23  ;  attributes,  23, 
24 ;  his  retinue,  his  mistress,  his 
favorite  abode  and  animals,  24 ; 
among  the  Romans,  59;  father  of 
Harmonia,  71,  89;  myths  of,  84-90; 
and  Diomede,  84-86,  290 ;  and  Mi- 
nerva, 86,  87  ;  and  Cadmus,  87-90, 
261  ;  and  Vulcan,  91  ;  father  of  Oino- 
maiis,  170;  M.  and  Atalanta,  265;  in 
Trojan  War,  285,  287,  290;   C.  28 

Marsyas  (mar'sT-as),  112,  138,  451;  C. 

87,  113 

Maruts  (mur'oots).  See  Hindu  divini- 
ties (i) 

Mass,  4 

Ma-t.    See  Egyptian  divinities  (2) 

Ma'ter  Ma-tu'ta,  the  goddess  of  the 
dawn,  Aurora ;  among  the  Romans 
the  name  was  applied  also  to  I  no 
(Leucothea),  63 

Ma'ter  Tur'ri-ta  :  Cybele,  or  Cybebe, 
with  the  mural  crown,  as  protectress 
of  walled  cities 

Mat-ro-na'li-a,  C.  26 

Me-co'ne.    See  Sicyon 


566 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Me-de'a,  myth  of,  232-236,  242,  243, 
252,  455;  C.  163-167;  genealogy, 
172,  table  L 

Medici  (med'e-che),  the  Venus  of,  32, 

33 ;_  C-  35 
Me-du'sa,    myth  of,   208-211;    extract 
from  William  Morris'  Doom  of  King 
Acrisius,    209,    210;  from    Shelley's 
Medusa  of  Da  Vinci,  210;  C.  149- 

Me-gae'ra,  54 

Meg-a-len'sian  Games,  C.  41 

Meg'a-ra,  201,  202,  246 

Meg'a-ra,  wife  of  Hercules,  216,  220 

Me-lam'pus,  450 

Mel-e-a'ger  or  Me-le'a-ger,  206,  225, 
231,  242,  265,  275;  myth  of,  237- 
241  ;  as  the  sun,  432  ;   C.  168 

Mel-e-sig'e-nes,  C.  2g8 

Meliboeus  (mel-I-be'us),  a  herdsman 
of  pastoral  poetry.  See  Virgil,  Bu- 
colics I 

Mel'lc  Nymphs,  5 

Mel-i-9er'tes,  a  sea-god,  58,  202,  261  ; 
C.  70 

Melisseus  (me-lis'us),  C.  146-147 

Me'los,  the  Venus  of,  32  ;   C.  jj 

Mel-pom'e-ne,  the  muse  of  tragedy,  37  ; 
C.j5(4) 

Mem'non,  myth  of,  extract  from  Dar- 
win's Botanic  Garden,  179,  180,  C. 
128 ;  family  connections,  276,  C.  igo- 
ig4  (5);  at  Troy,  307 

Mem'phis,  a  city  in  middle  Egypt, 
C.30 

Me-nal'cas,  a  herdsman  of  pastoral 
poetry 

Men-e-la'us,  275,  278-299,  313,  314; 
C.  igo-ig4  (2),  ig^,  ig6 

Me-ne'nT-us,  2 

Menoeceus  (me-ne'sus),  266;  C.  182- 
i8g,  table  N 

Menoetius  (me-ne'shi-us),  son  of  Actor 
and  father  of  Patroclus ;  an  Argo- 
naut ;   C.  igo-ig4  (4) 

Men'tor,  C.  231-244 

Mentu  (men'too).  See  Egyptian  divini- 
ties (i) 


Mer'cu-ry,  Mer-cii'rT-us  (Her'mes),  son 
of  Maia,  19;  meaning  of  name,  34; 
attributes,  34, 35 ;  conductor  of  ghosts, 
35,  47  ;  among  the  Romans,  59;  Ar- 
gus and  lo,  66,  67  ;  his  story  of  Pan 
and  Syrinx,  66,  67 ;  with  Philemon 
and  Baucis,  77;  and  Psyche,  136; 
myths  of,  Homeric  Hymn  to,  150, 
151;  aids  Perseus,  209;  aids  Her- 
cules, 220 ;  father  of  Daphnis,  223, 
224 ;  M.  and  Nephele,  229 ;  and  Priam, 
305;  and  Ulysses,  325,  331;  and 
^neas,  351  ;  interpretations  of,  432, 
440  ;   C.  36,  log 

Mer'o-pe,  of  Arcadia,  241  ;   C.  i6g 

Mer'o-pe,  daughter  of  CEnopion,  122 

Mer'o-pe,  the  Pleiad,  124;  C.  g7,  /jj, 
table 

Mes-se'ne,  115,  243 

Mes-se'ni-a,  241  ;   C.  80 

Met'a-bus,  364 

Met-a-mor'pho-ses,  Ovid's,  456,  457 

Me-temp-sy-eho'sis,  360  ;   C.  2^^-2j7 

Me'tis,  C.  _53 

Mezentius  (me-zen'shi-us),  364,  367, 
370,  371 

Mi'das,  with  Apollo  and  Pan,  no,  iii  ; 
with  Bacchus  and  Pan,  152,  157,  158; 
the  choice  of,  157;   C.  8^-87,  113 

Mid'gard,  373,  374,  378,  389,  392,  394 

Mid'gard  serpent,  377,  386,  387,  395 

Mi-lan'i-6n  (or  Hip-pom'e-nes),  C.  103 

Mi'lo.    See  A/elos 

Mi'mas,  C.  8 

Mime  (me'me),  in  the  Rhinegold,  414, 
421-424;  in  the  Volsunga  Saga, 
see  Regin 

Mimir  (me'mer),  374 

Mi-ner'va  (A-the'na,  A-the'ne),  7  ;  quo- 
tation from  Odyssey,  18 ;  daughter 
of  Jupiter,  19;  attributes,  23;  mean- 
ing of  her  names,  23  ;  her  cegis,  23  ; 
favorite  cities  and  animals,  23 ;  among 
the  Romans,  59;  myths  of,  81-84; 
contest  with  Neptune,  81,  82,  249; 
with  Arachne,  82-84  ;  quotation  from 
Spenser's  Muiopotmos,  83  ;  contests 
with   Mars,   84-86;    helps  Cadmus, 


INDEX  OF  MYTHOLOGICAL  SUBJECTS 


567 


88,  89;  inventor   of  the  flute,  112; 

M.  and  Medusa,  208  ;  Perseus,  209, 

213;    Bellerophon,    215;    Hercules, 

216,  220;  Perdix,  248;  Erichthonius, 

249;    Theseus,    256;    Tiresias,    266; 

Paris,  278  ;  in  Trojan  War,  284,  289, 

290,  300,  302,  308-31 1  ;  Orestes,  317  ; 

Ulysses,  332-340  ;  C.  lo-i^,  sj 
Mi-no'id  (Mi-no'is),  Ariadne,  daughter 

of  Minos,  254 
Mi'nos  I,  judge  of  the  shades,  51,  53, 

356;  son    of    Europa,    71,   207;   the 

house  of,  206,  246-248 ;   C.  S7,  table 

T>,i48  (I),  172 
Mi'nos  II,  201  ;  myths  of,  242,  246,  247, 

252,  259,  27s 
Minotaur    (min'o-tor),    246,    252,    256; 

C.  172,  1 76-1 8 1 
Minyae  (minl-e) :  descendants  of  Min- 

yas,  king  of  Thessaly ;  Argonauts 
Mist,  3 
Mnemosyne    (ne-mos'i-ne),  4 ;    mother 

of  the  Muses,  37  ;   C.  4 
Moerae  (me're),  Par'9ae.    See  Fates 
Moeragetes  (me-raj'e-tes):  name  applied 

to  Zeus  as  leader  of  the  Fates 
Mo'ly,  319,  325 
Mo'mus,  C.  4g,  table  B 
Mongolians,  448 
Mop'sus,  attendant  of  the  Argonauts, 

451 

Mop'sus,  an  ideal  singer  of  elegies. 
See  Virgil,  Bucolics  _^ 

Morpheus  (mor'fus),  177  ;  C.  12^.  See 
Somnus 

M&rs,  Than'a-tos,  Death,  298 

Mos'ehus,  Lang's  translation  of  Idyl 
II,  68-70;  of  Idyl  VI,  189;  C.S9, 
2g8 

Mountain  giants,  376,  378-386,  393 

Mul'fi-ber,  59  ;   C.  2g 

Munin  (moo'nen),  374 

Munychia  (mu-nik'i-a),  C.32.  SeeDiana 

Mu-sae'us,  a  mythical  poet,  451 

Mu-sae'us,  writer  of  Hero  and  Leander, 
141  ;  translation  by  Fawkes  in  Eng- 
lish Translations  from  Ancient  and 
Modern  Poems,  Vol.  II ;  C.  104,  2g8 


Mu-sag'e-tes  :  name  of  Apollo  as  leader 
of  the  Muses 

Muses  (Mu'sae),  18,  30;  names  and  at- 
tributes, 37  ;   C.  j8  (4) 

Music,  Lydian,  Dorian,  etc.,  C.  59 

Muspelheim  (moos'pel-ham  or  moos'- 
pel-hm),  373,  395 

Mut  (moot),  or  Maut.  See  Egyptian 
divinities  (2) 

My-^e'nae,  22,  216,  275,  280,  316 

Myg-do'ni-an  flutes,  69  ;   C.  59 

Myrmidons  (mer'mi-dons),  75,  269,  297  ; 
C.61 

My'ron,  a  sculptor,  C.  64 

Myr'rha  (mir'a),  126,  150 

Myrtilus  (mer'ti-lus),  171 

Mysia  (mish'T-a),  179,  222,  231  ;  C.  128, 
1^6-162 

Mysteries  of  Eleusis,  C.  114-jiy 

Myth,  stages  of  mythological  philoso- 
phy, study  of  myth,  see  Introduc- 
tion ;  definition  of,  i  ;  compared  with 
fable,  1,2;  of  existent  races,  2 ;  Greek 
myths  of  creation,  3-17;  of  great  di- 
vinities of  heaven,  64-151  ;  of  great 
divinities  of  earth,  152-158;  of  earth 
and  underworld,  159-168;  of  waters, 
169-171 ;  of  lesser  divinities  of 
heaven,  172-180  ;  of  lesser  divinities 
of  earth  and  underworld,  181-197  ;  of 
lesser  divinities  of  waters,  198-205 ; 
of  the  older  heroes,  206-264;  of  the 
younger  heroes,  265  et  seq. ;  of  the 
Norse  gods,  373-397  ;  of  Norse  and 
Old  German  heroes,  398-409.  Kinds 
of  myth,  431  ;  explanatory,  431  ;  aes- 
thetic, 432;  aesthetic  myth  \s  historic  ox 
romantic,  433 ;  of  unconscious  growth, 
433  ;  divisions  of  inquiry,  433.  Origin 
and  Elements  of  myth,  433-446 ;  the 
reasonable  element,  434  ;  part  played 
by  imagination,  434 ;  and  by  belief, 
435;  the  unreasonable  element,  436; 
theories  of,  436 ;  theory  of  deteriora- 
tion, 436-440 ;  theory  of  progress, 
440-446.  Interpretation,  methods 
of:  historical  or  Euhemeristic,  436; 
philological,    437;     allegorical,    438; 


568 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


theological,  439 ;  the  mental  state  of 
savages,  440-442  ;  senseless  element, 
a  survival,  442 ;  anthropological 
method  of  study,  (Etiological  origin, 
442;  other  germs  than  savage  curiosity 
and  credulity,  442 ;  phases  of  myth- 
development,  443-445  ;  physical,  re- 
ligious and  moral  import,  444 ;  myth 
more  than  sham  history,  446 ;  gen- 
eral conclusion  concerning  elements 
of  myth,  446.  Distribution  of  myth, 
447-449 ;  theories  of  accident,  bor- 
rowing, origittation  in  India,  histori- 
cal tradition,  447 ;  Aryan  germ,  psy- 
chological basis,  448 ;  the  state  of  the 
problem,  449.  Preservation  of  myth, 
450-463;  in  Greece,  450-455;  in 
Italy,  456,  457 ;  in  Scandinavian 
lands,  457-460;  in  Germany,  460, 
461  ;  in  the  Orient,  462,  463.  Inter- 
pretation and  illustration  of  myths, 
see  Commentary  sections  correspond- 
ing to  those  of  the  Text. 

Mythical  musicians  and  poets,  451 

Mythical  prophets,  450,  451 

Mythical  tales  of  the  Younger  Edda,  459 

Naiad  (na'yad),  the  poem  by  R.  Bu- 
chanan, 190,  191 

Naiads  (na'yads).  Naiades  (na'ya-des), 
58,  98,  186,  189-191,  198,  204,  222, 
224;   C.SO-S2 

Na'is,  185  ;   C.  isg-ijo 

Na'la,  episode  of,  461,  462 

Nalopakhyanam  (na-lo-pa-kya'nam), 
translation  of,  C.  joj 

Names,  Greek  and  Latin,  system  of 
transliteration  of,  see  Preface ;  pro- 
nunciation of,  541,  542,  and  Index 

Nan'na,  390-392  ;   C.  268-281 

Nar-9is'sus,  188,  189;  C.  ij2-ijj 

Nausicaa  (no-sik'a-a),  332-336;  C.2ji- 
244 

Nausithoiis  (no-sith'o-us),  332 

Nax'os,  153,  154,  155,  156,  169,  257; 
C.  110-112 

Ne-ae'ra,  a  maiden  of  pastoral  song. 
See  Virgil,  Bticolics  j 


Nefer  Atum  (na'fer  a'toom).  See  Egyp- 
tian divinities  (i) 
Neidings  (ni'dings),  416 
Neith  (na'ith).    See  Egyptian  divinities, 

(2) 
Neleus  (ne'lus),  170 
Ne'me-a,  the  city,  the  valley,  and  the 

lion  of,  216;   C.  I £6-1 62 
Ne-me'an,  or  Ne'me-an,  Games,  founded 

by    Hercules ;    held     in     honor    of 

Jupiter ;   C.  I'j6-i8i  (Textual) 
Nem'e-sis,  38  ;   C.  38  (7) 
Ne-op-tol'e-mus,    276,    293,   309,    313, 

314,  349 

Ne-pen'the,  314 

Neph  (nef),Chnuphis  (knoo'fis),  Khnum 
(knoom),  Num  or  Nu  (noom,  nod). 
See  Egyptian  divinities  (2) 

Nephele  (nef'e-le),  121,  229 

Nephthys  (nef'this).  See  Egyptian  di- 
vif titles  (i) 

Nep'tune,  Nep-tu'nus  (Po-sei'don),  5, 
6,  15,  204,  454;  sometimes  reckoned 
as  one  of  the  great  gods,  19 ;  founder 
of  the  younger  dynasty  of  the  waters, 
55,  56 ;  among  the  Romans,  59 ;  con- 
test with  Minerva,  81,  82,  249;  N. 
and  Iphimedia,  93 ;  and  Phaethon, 
97;  and  Laomedon,  no,  169,  170; 
and  Idas,  115;  father  of  Orion,  122, 
170;  myths  of,  169-171  ;  N.  and  An- 
dromeda, 169;  sons  of  N.,  170;  N. 
and  Amymone,  and  Ceres,  and  Arne, 
and  Tyro,  and  Pelops,  170,  171 ;  and 
Erysichthon,  192  ;  his  sea  calves  pas- 
tured by  Proteus,  202 ;  his  son  An- 
taeus, 220 ;  and  Minos,  246 ;  and 
Hippolytus,  260;  in  Trojan  War, 
285,  293-296,  301,  311  ;  and  Ulysses, 
337;  and  ^neas,  350,  352;  C.  jo- 
^2,  table  C 

Ne're-ids  (Ne-rel-des),  the,  55,  69,  97, 
247 

Nereus  (ne'rQs),  55,  97,  198,  204,  269 

Nes'sus,  225 

Nes'tor,  179,  231,  237,  239;  in  Trojan 
War,  280,  285,  286,  294-297 

Netherlands,  405,  406 


INDEX  OF  MYTHOLOGICAL  SUBJECTS 


569 


Nibelheim  (ne'bel-ham  or  ne'bel-hlm), 
412^/  seq. 

Nibelung  (ne'be-loong),  Wagner's  Ring 
of  the,  410-430 

Nibelungenlied  (ne'be-loong'en-let'), 
405-409  ;  theories  of  origin,  460,  461  ; 
C.  283 

Niblungs  (ne^jloongs),  Nibelungs  (ne'- 
be-lo6ngs),  Nibelungen  (ne'be-loong- 
en),  403-430;  lay  of  the,  405-409, 
460,  461  ;  Wagner's  Ring  of  the, 
410-430;   €.282,283,282-283 

Ni-can'der,  C.  2gS 

Nidhogg  (ned'hog),  374 

Niflheim     (nev"l-ham     or    nif'l-him), 

373.  374.  377.  379.  394;  C.  282- 
283 

Night,  Nyx  (nix),  Nox,  a  prime  element 
of  Nature,  3,  4 ;  mother  of  the  Fates 
and  of  Nemesis,  38,  176,  196;  family 
of,  C.  4g,  table  B 

Ni'ke,  41.    See  Victoria 

Nile,  the  river,  97,  180 ;   C.  f4g-ij4 

Nimrod  and  the  giants,  440 

Ni'nus,  148 

Ni'o-be,  77,  170;  the  punishment  of, 
99-103 ;  quotation  from  Landor's 
Niobe,  102,  103;  genealogy,  inter- 
pretation, etc.,  C.  78 

Nirvana  (ner-v'a'na)  :  annihilation,  or 
absorption  into  the  Infinite,  of  the 
Karma  (human  character,  or  soul) 
after  it  has  passed  through  innumer- 
able existences,  and  learned  the  vir- 
tuous life.    See  Buddha 

Ni'sus,  father  of  Scylla,  201,  202 

Ni'sus,  friend  of  Euryalus,  368-370 

Noah  and  Deucalion,  440 

No'mi-6s,  No'mT-us,  an  epithet  applied 
to  Apollo  as  the  pasturer  or  herds- 
man;  see  104-106,  no;  C.  30  (In 
Art) 

Norns,  374,  375,  388,  402;  in  Wagner's 
Ring,  424,  426 

Norse  gods,  myths  of,  2,  373-397  ;  C. 
268-281 

Norse  heroes,  myths  of,  398-405 ;  C. 
268-282 


Norse  mytholog}',  narrative  of,  373- 
405 ;  records  of,  457-460 ;  transla- 
tions and  authorities,  458-460  notes, 
and  C.  268-282 

North  American  Indians,  mental  state 
of,  441  ;  myths  of,  448 

Norway,  Norsemen,  442,  448  ;  C.  268- 
281 

Nos'toi,  the,  453 

Nothung  (no'toong),  418,  421-425 

No'tus,  38 

Nox,  Nyx  (mx).    See  Algkt 

Nu'ma  Pom-pilK-us,  61,  63  ;   C.  28 

Nut  (noot).    See  Egyptian  divinities  (i) 

Nycteus  (nik'tus),  75;   C.  62 

Nymphs,  the,  45,  46,  97,  180,  189,  205  ; 
C.  131 

Ny'sa,  an  ideal  maiden  in  pastoral 
poetry 

Ny'sa,  Nysian-born  (nish'i-an),  258. 
Three  cities  bore  the  name  of  Nysa, 
—  in  Caria,  in  Palestine,  and  in  India ; 
the  last  is  here  referred  to;  C.  42, 
110-112 

Nysaean  (ni-se'an)  nymphs,  152 

Nyx  (mx),  Nox.    See  Might 

O-a'sis  or  O'a-sis,  in  Libya,  oracle   of 

Jupiter  Ammon  at,  20 
Oblivion,  valley  of,  359,  360 
Ocean,  0-9e'a-nus,  the  river,  3,  35,  42, 

43.  327.  328 

0-9e'a-nids,  55,  58 

O-^e'a-nus,  the  Titan,  4,  5,  22  ;  older 
dynasty  of  the  waters,  55,  67,  68,  204, 
207  ;   C.  4,  SO-S3 

Ocyrrhoe  (o-sir'o-e),  104 

O'din,  yil-yil,  386-405  passim ;  in 
Wagner's  Ring,  412-430;  interpre- 
tation of,  437  ;   C.  268-281 

Odysseus  (o-dis'us).  See  Ulysses  and 
Odyssey 

Odyssey  (od'i-si),  cited,  18,  35,  47,  51, 
and  footnotes /d:.f.f/>«  ;  hero  of,  275, 
276;  narrative  of,  318-345;  Lang's 
sonnet,  318;  a  kind  of  myth,  433, 
448  ;  history  of,  452  ;  translations  and 
authorities,  C.  231-244,  2g8 


570 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


CEchalia  (e-ka'li-a),  225,  226;  C.  i^b-162 
CEdipus  (ed'i-pus),  mentioned,  90,  206, 

207,  455  ;  myth  of,  261-264,  268  ;  and 

the  Sphinx,  262  ;  is  made  king,  262  ; 

at  Colonus,  263  ;  extracts  from  Plump- 

tre's  translation  of  Sophocles'  Qidi- 

pus  the  King  and  QLdipus  Coloneus, 

262-264 ;   C.  i82-i8g 
Qineus  (e'nus),  225,  237 
Ginomaiis  (en-o-ma'us),  170,  171 
Qinone  (e-no'ne),  310,  432  ;   C.  221 
OLnopion  (e-no'pi-6n),  father  of  Merope 

and  king  of  Chios.    See  Orion 
CEte  (e'te),  or  CE'ta,  Mount,  96,   226, 

227  ;   C.  76,  1J6-162 
O-i'cles,    father    of    Amphiaraiis    and 

grandfather  of  Alcmason 
Oileus  (o-i'lus),  286 
Olympian  religion,  the,  20 ;   C.  2j  and 

table  A 
Olympic  Games,  C.  lyb-iSi  (Textual) 
O-lym'pus,  Mount,  93,  97 
O-lym'pus,  home  of  the  Greek  gods  of 

heaven,  2,  6;.  located  and  described, 

18 ;  Homer's  conception  of,  18, 19, 42 ; 

myths  of  greater  gods  of,  64-151 ;  of 

lesser  gods  of,  172-180;  dynasty  of, 

dethroned,  181  ;   C.  22 
Om'pha-le,  221 
0-phi'6n,  C.  4,  71 
Ops,  59 
Oracle,  at  Delphi,  5,  27,  42  ;  at  Dodona, 

19,   20;    of  Jupiter    Ammon  in   the 

Oasis,  20  ;  of  Trophonius,  C.  jo ;  of 

the  dead,  51  ;  of  Apollo,  consulted, 

128,  130,  175,  315,  316,347;   C.24- 

25^30 
Or-chom'e-nos,  Or-ehom'e-nus,  216;  C. 

1^6-162 
Or'cus,  83.    See  Pluto 
O're-ads  (0-re'a-des),  46,  186,  188,  192 
O-res'tes,    196,   268,   275,  315-317;   C. 

igo-ig4  (2),  228-230 
Oriental    mythology,   records    of,   462, 

463 
Origin,  of  the  world,  Greek,  3 ;  of  the 

gods,  4,  8  ;  of  man,  8,  9  ;  Norse,  373, 

374 


0-ri'6n,  41, 170;  myth  of,  122, 123;  C.g6 

Orithyia  (or-i-thi'ya),  daughter  of  Erech- 
theus,  king  of  Athens,  loved  by  Boreas, 
38,39;   C.38{^) 

Or'miizd,  463 

Orpheus  (or'fiis),  112,  206,  230,  232, 
233, 242, 359,  451  ;  and  Eurydice,  165- 
168,  203;  quotation  from  Landor's  Or- 
pheus and  Eurydice,  167,  168;  C. 
118 ;  cited,  3 

Orphic  hymns,  451 

Or'thi-a,  C.  32.    See  Diana 

Ortygia  (or-tijl-a),  120;   C.  32,  gj 

O-si'ris,  447.   See  Egyptian  divinities  (i) 

Os'sa,  Mount,  93,  97  ;  C.  76.  It  is  in 
Thessaly.  By  piling  Ossa  on  Pelion 
the  Titans  Coeus  and  lapetus  and  the 
monster  Typhoeus  thrice  attempted 
to  scale  Olympus,  but  were  as  often 
beaten  back  by  the  lightnings  of 
Jove.    See  Virgil,  Georgics  i.  281 

Othrys  (oth'ris),  the  mountain  in  Thes- 
saly occupied  by  the  Titans  in  their 
war  with  Jupiter  and  the  other  Olym- 
pians 

Ot'ter,  400,  401 

O'tus,  93 

Ov'id  (O-vid'i-us),  account  of,  and  of  his 
poems,  456,  457  ;  references  to  his 
works,  54,  60,  65,  68,  72,  73,  79,  82, 
84,  90,  92,  94,  96,  98,  102,  no,  112, 
116,  117,  120,  123,  125,  126,  139,  141, 
145.  147.  150,  153.  157.  159.  160,  165, 
172,  175,  180,  188,  191,  195,  200,  202, 
203,  207,  208,  215,  230,  233,  23s,  237, 
243,  246,  249,  250,  269;  translations, 
C.  2gg ;  also  of  the  Metamorphoses 
in  1 5  books  by  various  authors,  pub- 
lished by  Sir  Samuel  Garth,  in  Vol. 
II  of  English  Translations  from  An- 
cient and  Modern  Poems,  3  vols., 
London,  1810 

Pac-to'lus,  1 58  ;   C.  110-112 

Pa'dus,  or  Po,  the  river,  359 

Pas'an,  Pae'on,  Paieon  (pi-e'6n),  heals 

Mars,  86,  290  ;   C.  68 
Pae'an,  the  chant,  26,  92 ;   C.  68 


INDEX  OF  MYTHOLOGICAL  SUBJECTS 


571 


Pakht  (pacht)  and  Bast.  See  Egyptian 
divinities  (i) 

Pa-lae'mon,  202.    See  Melicertes 

Pal-a-me'des,  279 

Pa'les,  61 

Pal-T-nu'rus,  352,  355  ;   C.  243-234 

Pal-la'di-um,  the,  310,  314 ;   C.  21 

Pal'las,  Athena,  7,  23;  C.  2"/.  See  Mi- 
nerva 

Pal'las,  a  Giant,  7 

Pal'las,  son  of  Evander,  365-367,  371, 
372 

Pan,  described,  45 ;  Pandean  pipes,  66, 
67;  contest  with  Apollo,  no,  in; 
father  of  Silenus,  152;  P.  and  the 
personification  of  nature,  181-187; 
extracts  from  Milton,  Schiller,  Mrs. 
Browning,  reference  to  Wordsworth, 
181-183 ;  E.  C.  Stedman's  Pan  in 
Wall  Street,  183-185;  love  of  Echo, 
189;  in  Buchanan's  Naiad,  190;  P. 
and  Pomona,  195  ;  C.  43, 34, 57,  i2g- 

130,  131 
Pan-ath-e-nae'a,  C.  2y,  ij6-i8i 
Pan'da-rus,  289 ;   C.  igb 
Pan-de'mos,  C.  34.    See  Venus 
Pan-di'on,  249 ;   C.  148  (4),  174 
Pan-do'ra,  2;  creation  of,  11,  25;  wife 

of  Epimetheus,  her  casket,   11;    C. 

10-13 
Pan'dro-sos,  daughter  of  Cecrops.    See 

Herse 
Pan'o-pe,  88  ;   C.  yo 
Pan'o-pe,  a  Nereid,  55;  C.  30-32 
Pa'phi-an,  128;   C.  34.    See  Vemts 
Pa'phos,  32,  126,  147,  149;   C.  34,  joo 
Papyri  (pa-pi'rl),  the  sacred,  462 
Parcae  (par'se),  Moeras  (me're).  SecFates 
Par'is  (should  be  Pa'ris,  by  rule),  276, 

296;  the  judgment  of,  278,  350;  P. 

and  Helen,  278,  279,  289,  313;  and 

Menelaus,    286-289 ;    and    Achilles, 

308;  and  CEnone,  309,  310;   C.  igo- 

194  (5).  -^95.  207,  221 
Par-nas'sus,  Mount,  in  Phocis,  26,  27, 

97,  112;   C.JO,  j5{4),  76 
Pa'ros,  198 
Par-the'ni-us,  C.  2g8 


Par'the-non,  C.  4,  24-23,  27,  j<?  (10),  40, 
48,  176-181 

Par-then-o-pae'us,  265 

Par-then'o-pe,  205,  329 

Par'the-nos,  the  Virgin  •  a  title  of 
Athene 

Parvati  (par'wa-te  or  par'va-te).  See 
Hindu  divinities  (2) 

Pasiphae  (pa-sif'a-e),  246;   C.  172 

Pa-sith'e-a.  (i)  A  Nereid.  (2)  One  of 
the  Graces 

Pa-tro'clus  or  Pat'ro-clus,  275,  296-299, 
303  ;   C.  igo-ig4  (4),  207 

Patronymics,  C.  77 

Pau-sa'nT-as,  455  ;  references  to,  75,  125, 
180,  207,  208,  241,  246,  249,  265,  268  ; 
C.26 

Peg'a-sus,  myth  of,  211,  214,  215;  C.  133 

Peitho  (pi'tho),  Suadela  (swa-de'la), 
goddess  of  Persuasion 

Pe-la'gi-a,  C.  J4.    See  Venus 

Pe-las'gic  division  of  the  Greeks,  16 

Pe-las'gus,  son  or  grandson  of  Phoro- 
neus,  17,  206,  207  ;  C.  21,37,  table  D 

Peleus  (pe'lus),  206,  225,  231,  237,  239, 
274  ;  myth  of  Peleus  and  Thetis,  269- 
272,  277,  279 ;  translation  of  Catul- 
lus, LXIV,  by  C.  M.  Gayley,  269-272, 
family  of  Peleus,  275,  276;   C.  igo- 

194  (i)>  199 
Pe'li-as,  ic6,  170,  230,  233;  daughters 

of,  235,  C.  83 
Pe-li'des,  272  ;   C.  77 
Pe'li-6n,  Mount,  93,  in,  271,  274;   C 

76.    See  Ossa 
Pel-o-pon-ne'sus,  16,  207 
Pe'Iops,  99,  206,  250,  434;  and  Hippo- 

damia,  170,  171,  275  ;  genealogy,  etc., 

C.  78,  igo-ig4  {2) 
Pe-na'tes,  described,  61,  62 
Pe-nel'o-pe,  275,  276,  279,  328,338-344; 

C.  igo-ig4  (3),  (4),  231-244 
Pe-ne'us  river,   in,  113,  218,  271;    C. 

83-86 
Pen-thes-i-le'a,  307 
Pentheus  (pen'thus),  89,  152-156,  261; 

C.  110-112,  i82-j8g,  table  N 
Pe-phre'do,  one  of  the  Graeae 


572 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Per'dix,  248 

Per-i-e'res,  C.  148  (2),  (5) 

Per-i-phe'tes  or  Per-i-pha'tes,  251  ;  C. 
176-181 

Per-se'is,  daughter  of  Perses,  wife  of 
Helios,  and  mother  of  Pasiphae,  Ari- 
adne, Phaedra,  and  ^etes,  C.  12^, 
table  H 

Per-seph'o-ne,  53,  127,  327.  See  Proser- 
pina 

Perseus  (per'sus),  17, 206  ;  myth  of,  208- 
214;  and  Medusa,  208-2 1 1  ;  and  Atlas, 
211;  and  Andromeda,  211-214,  215, 
216;  and  Acrisius,  214;  lines  from 
Kingsley  and  Milrnan,  212,  213;    C. 

149-154- 
Persia,   448 ;    records    of    myth,    463 ; 

studies  on,  C.  J04. 
Personification,    to-day,     434 ;    among 

savages,  435 
Pes'si-nus,  Pes'i-nus,  C.  41 
Pet'a-sus,  the,  34 
Phaeacia  (fe-a'shi-a),   332-33S ;    Lang's 

Song  of,  335,  336;   C.  231-244 
Phae'dra,  259,  260,  328  ;  C.  ij2,  table  L  ; 

176-181  (Illustr.) 
Phae'drus,  2 
Pha'e-thon,  Pha'e-ton,  myth  of,  94-9S, 

432  ;    C.  76 
Pha-e-thu'sa,  330 
Phan'ta-sus,    son    of    Somnus,    C.  i2§. 

See  Sleep 
Pha'on,  139;  myth  of,  149,  454;  C.  107 
Pha'ros,  island,  203  ;   C.  14^ 
Phar-sa'lus,  a  city  in  Thessaly ;   Phar- 

sa'li-a,  the  region  thereabout 
Pha'sis,  the  river,  223  ;   C.  1^6-162 
Phe'rae,    capital  of   Thessalia    Pelasgi- 

otis,  home  of  Admetus 
Phid'i-as,  Olympian  Jove  of,  21  ;    Ho- 
mer's lines  in   Iliad,  21  ;    C.  27,  j8 

(10),  64 
Phi-le'mon  and  Bau'gis,  myth   of,  77- 

80 ;  Swift's  burlesque,  79,  80 
Phil-oc-te'tes,  227,  309,  453;  C.  21^220 
Phil-o-me'la,  249,  250;   C.  174 
Phineus  (fi'nus),  213,  331,  348;   C.  i6j- 

167 


Phleg'e-thon,  47,  356 

Pho'bos  or  Phob'os,  Fear,  son  and  at- 
tendant of  Mars,  24 

Pho'9is,  249,  315 

Phce'be  (the  shining  one),  a  name  of 
Diana,  138;   C.  J2,  g8 

Phoe'be,  one  of  the  Titans,  64 ;   C.  4 

Phce'bus,  C.  28,  jo.    See  Apollo 

Phoenicians  (fe-nish'ans)  as  dissemina- 
tors of  cults,  20 

Phoe'nix,  274,  294 

Pho'lus,  217 

Phor'bas,  352 

Phorcys  (for'sis)  and  Qe'to,  offspring 
of,  57,  201 

Phoroneus  (fo-ro'nus),  son  of  Inachus, 
17,  207  ;   C.  _57,  table  D 

Phos'phor,  40,  172,  175 

Phrixus  (frix'us),  229,  230;  C.  163-167 
(Interpret.) 

Phrygia  (frij'i-a),  77,  99,  152,  223,  448; 
C.63 

Phtha  (ftha),  Ptah  (p'ta).  See  Egyptian 
divinities  (l) 

Phthia  (thi'a),  269,  274 

Phyllis  (firis),  an  ideal  maiden  of  pas- 
toral poetry 

Pi-erT-des  :  the  Muses  as  daughters  of 
Pierus,  king  of  Thessaly,  or  as  fre- 
quenters of  Mount  Pierus 

Pi'er-us,  Mount,  in  Thessaly,  1 50 ;  C. 
log 

Pillars  of  Hercules,  219;  C.  1^6-162 

Pin'dar  (Pin'da-rus),  453,  454 ;  refer- 
ences to,  51,  170,  180;  translations, 
C.2g8 

Pin'dus,  Mount,  97  ;   C.  76 

Pip-le'a,  223 

Pi-rae'us,  253 

Pi-re'ne,  a  fountain  in  Corinth,  said  to 
have  started  from  the  ground  (like 
Hippocrene)  under  a  kick  of  Pega- 
sus, 215 

Pi-rith'o-us,  237,  243,  258,  259 

Pi-sis'tra-tus,  452 

Pittheus  (pit'thus),  251  ;  C.  78,  table  F ; 
148  (5)  B,  table  I ;  174,  table  M;  igo" 
i()4  (2),  table  O 


INDEX  OF  MYTHOLOGICAL  SUBJECTS 


57. 


Pleasure,  136 

Pleiads  (ple'yads),  Pleiades  (ple'ya-des 
or  ple-i'a-des),  daughters  of  Atlas, 
57,  180;  myth  of,  123,  124;   C.  g^ 

Plenty,  goddess  of,  204 

Plex-ip'pus,  238,  240 

Plutarch  (plob'tark),  referred  to,  250, 252 

Pluto  (ploo't5),  Al-des,  A'des,  Ha'des, 
5,  6,  20,  234,  355  ;  his  abode,  47-50, 
353;  attributes,  52,  53;  the  Roman 
Orcus,  53,  59;  and  yEsculapius,  104; 
carries  off  Proserpine,  159,  160  ;  mol- 
lified by  Orpheus,  166  ;  and  Neptune, 
170;  helmet  of,  209;  and  Hercules, 
220 ;  Theseus  and  Pirithovis,  259 ;  C.  47 

Plutus  (ploo'tus),  C.  47 

Poeas  (pe'as),  227 

Poena  (pe'na).  (i)  Greek,  an  attendant, 
with  Di'ke  and  Erinys,  of  Nemesis. 
(2)  Latin,  goddess  of  punishment. 
Poenae  :  sometimes  the  Furies 

Poets  of  mythology,  in  Greece,  451- 
455  ;  in  Rome,  456,  457  ;  C.  2g8,  sgg. 
See,  in  general,  under  Myth,  preser- 
vation of 

Po-li'tes,  312 

Pol'lux,  Polydeuces  (pol-T-diJ'ses),  206, 
230,  237,  242-245,  275,  289;   C.  igo- 

194  (3) 

Pol-y-bo'tes,  C.  8 

Pol'y-bus,  261,  262 

Pol-y-cli'tus,  Pol-y-cle'tus,  81  ;   C.  26,64 

Pol-y-dec'tes,  208 ;  punished  by  Per- 
seus, 213 

Pol-y-dec'tes,  a  name  applied  to  Pluto, 

C.47 

Pol'y-dore  (Pol-y-do'rus),  son  of  Cad- 
mus, 89,  261  ;   C.  i82-i8g,  table  N 

Pol'y-dore  (Pol-y-do'rus),  son  of  Priam,' 

347 

Pol-y-hym'm-a  (Po-lym'ni-a),  the  muse 
of  sacred  poetry,  37  ;   C.  38  (4) 

Pol-y-i'dus,  215 

Polynesian  (pol-T-ne'shan)  savages,  men- 
tal development  of,  44 1 ;  myths  among, 

447.  449 
Pol-y-ni'9e§,  264,  265,  266,  268  ;  C.  182- 
i8g,  table  N 


Pol-y-phe'mus,  170;  and  Galatea,  Lang's 
translation  of  Theocritus,  Idyls  VI 
and  XI,  198-200;  P.  and  Ulysses, 
320-323 ;  and  ^Eneas,  349 ;  C.  141, 
231-244 

Pol-y-phon'te,  150 

Pol-y-phon'tes,  241 

Polyxena  (po-lix'e-na),  272,  276,  307, 
313  ;   C.  igo-ig4  (5),  2ig-220 

Po-mo'na,  quotation  from  Macaulay's 
Prophecy  of  Capys,  61  ;  and  Vertum- 
nus,  myth  of,  extract  from  Thom- 
son's Seasons,  195;   Cj/,  ijg 

Pon'tus,  region  near  the  Black  Sea, 
Ovid's  Letters  from,  456 

Pon'tus,  a  sea-god,  55,  201 

Porphyrion  (por-fir'i-on),  a  Giant,  7 

P6r-tha'6n,  genealogy  of,  C.  148  (3), 
(5),  168 

Por-tum'nus,  202.    See  Melkertes 

Poseidon  (po-si'don).    See  Neptutie 

Prax-it'e-les,  a  Greek  sculptor,  €.3^,36, 
38  (I), 5^,  100,  131 

Pri'am  (Pri'a-mus),  179,  225,  276;  in 
Trojan  War,  278-307,  312,  313;  C. 
igo-ig4  (5),  207,  216 

Pri-a'pus,  a  Roman  god  of  increase, 
promoter  of  horticulture  and  viticul- 
ture 

Prithivi  (pri-te'vi).  See  Hindu  divini- 
ties (i) 

Proc'ne,  Prog'ne,  249,  250;   C.  174 

Pro'cris,  172-175;  Dobson's  Death  of, 
174.  175;  328;   C.  123-124 

Pro-crus'tes,  170,  251 

ProdT-cus  of  Chios,  a  contemporary  of 
Socrates ;  author  of  the  story  of  the 
Choice  of  Hercules 

Proetus  (pre'tus),  214 

Progress,  theory  of,  in  mythology,  436, 
440-446 

Prometheus  (pro-me'thus),  2,  6,  206, 
207,  269,  271,  455;  a  creator,  8,  10  «; 
champion  of  man,  10 ;  chained  on 
Mount  Caucasus,  11,  225;  his  secret, 
II,  12;  quotations  from  G.  C.  Lodge, 
Byron,  and  Longfellow,  12-15;  C. 
lo-JS 


574 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Propertius  (pro-per'shT-us),  457 

Pro-ser'pi-na,  Pros'er-pine,  Per-seph'o- 
ne,  20,  43,  44,  234,  318  ;  Swinburne's 
Garden  of  Proserpine,  49,  50 ;  attri- 
butes, 53 ;  the  Roman  Libera,  59 ;  P. 
and  Psyche,  134,  135;  the  rape  of, 
159,  160;  Shelley's  Song  of  Proser- 
pine, 160;  Ceres'  search  for,  160- 
163;  quotation  from  G.  E.  Wood- 
berry's  Proserpine,  163, 164;  mollified 
by  Orpheus,  166;  Theseus'  attempt 
to  abduct,  220;  ^neas,  354;  C.  48, 
114-117 

Pro-tes-i-la'us,  282.    See  Laodamia 

Proteus  (pro'tus),  56,  58  ;  and  Aristasus, 
202,  203 ;   C.  50-^2  and  table  C  ;  14^ 

Psamathe  (sam'a-the),  103 

Pseudo-Mu-sae'us,  C.  104.    See  Muscpus 

Psyche  (si'ke),  myth  of,  128-139, 
457 ;  extracts  from  William  Morris' 
Earthly  Paradise,  131,  135;  Bridge's 
Eros  and  Psyche,  132 ;  Pater's 
Marius,  133;  T.  K.  Hervey's  Cupid 
and  Psyche,  136,  137  ;  Keats'  Psyche, 
137-139;  C.  101-102 

Psychopompus  (si-ko-pom'pus) :  Mer- 
cury as  guide  of  ghosts  to  the  under- 
world, 35,  47  ;   C.  36 

Ptah  (p'ta).    See  Egyptian  divinities  (i) 

Purpose  of  this  work,  i 

Py-a-nep'sT-a,  C.  30 

Pygmalion  (pig-ma'lT-on),  fabled  sculp- 
tor, 139;  and  the  statue,  145-147; 
extracts  from  Lang's  New  Pygmalion, 
145,  146,  147 ;  from  William  Morris' 
Pygmalion  and  the  Image,  146,  147  ; 
C.  los 

Pygmalion  (pig-ma'li-6n),  king  of  Tyre, 

351 
Pygmies,  221  ;   C.  1^6-162 
Pylades  (pil'a-des),  315,  316;  C.  228- 

230 
Py'los,  150,  225,  285,  452;  C.  iog,is(>- 

162 
Pyramus  (pir'a-mus),  139;  and  Thisbe, 

147-149;   C.  106 
Pyriphlegethon  (pir-i-fleg'e-thon),  327. 

See  Phlegeihon 


Pyrrha  (pTr'a)  and  Deucalion,  16,  207; 
C.  jg~2o;  genealogy,  148  (5) 

Pyrrhus  (pir'us),  or  Ne-op-tore-mus, 
312,313;  C.  igo-ig4  (i).  See  A'(?o/- 
tolemus 

Pythagoras  (pT-thag'o-ras),  a  philos- 
opher of  Samos,  about  550  B.C.;  his 
doctrine  of  metempsychosis,  360  and 
C.  2S5-2S7 

Pythia  (pith'i-a),  €.30,32.    See  Diana 

Pythian  Games,  27 ;  C.  176-181  (Tex- 
tual) 

Py'thon,  26,  92  ;   C.  30,  74 

Pythoness  (pith'o-ness),  C.  30 

Qui-ri'nus,  61 

R'a.    See  Egyptian  divinities  (l) 

Rag'na-rok',  394 

Rakshasas    (riik'sha-sas).     See   Hindu 

divinities  (i) 
Ramayana     (ra-ma'ya-na),     462,     463 ; 

compared  with  Iliad,  463  ;  paraphrase 

of,  C.303 
Ravana  (ra'va-na),  463 
Re-gil'lus,  243 
Regin  (ra'gin),  400,  401 
Reim-thursar   (ram'ther-sar).   Rime    or 

Frost  giants.    See  Hrim-tkursar 
Re'mus,  372 
Rerir  (ra'rer),  398 
Rhadamanthus  (rad-a-man'thus),  51,  53, 

216,  357;   son  of  Europa,  71,  246; 

C.  2SS-2S7 
Rhamnusia    (ram-nu'shi-a) :     Nemesis, 

from  Rhamnus  in  Attica,  where  she 

was  specially  worshiped 
Rhapsodists,  the,  452 
Rhea    (re'a),   4,    5,    19,    44,    152;     the 

Roman  Magna  Mater,  59 ;  C.  4,  41, 

110-112,  146-147.    See  Cybele 
Rhine,  404-406,  409,  410-430 /<2jjm 
Rhine-daughters,    in   Wagner's    Ring, 

410,  411,  416,  427-430 
Rhine-gold,   W^agner's   opera   of    the, 

410-416 
Rhodope  (rod'o-pe),  a  mountain  range 

in  Thrace,  97  ;  C,  76 


INDEX  OF  MYTHOLOGICAL  SUBJECTS 


575 


Rhodope  (rod'o-pe),  A'con  and,  Lan- 
der's poem,  C.  ij8 

RhcEcus,  (re'kus),  myth  of,  193,  194; 
extracts  from  Lowell's  Rhoecus,  193, 
194;  C.  138 

Rhoetus  (re'tus),  C.  8 

Ring  of  the  Nibelung,  Wagner's,  410- 

430 
Ri'shig,  462 

River  ocean,  3.    See  Ocean 
Rock,  the  White,  47 
Rod'mar,  400,  401 
Roman  divinities,  2,  3,  59-63 
Rome,  365,  366,  372,  448,  456 
Rom'ii-lus,  60,  372;  as  Quirinus,  61 
Runes,  375,  394,  413,  457,  45S  ;  C.  joo 
Russians,  448 
Rut'G-H,  Rutulians  (roo-too'li-ans),  362, 

365-370 
Rymer  (re'mer),  396 

Sa-bri'na,  a  nymph  in  Milton's  Comus, 
204  ^ 

Sasmund  (sa'moond)  the  Wise,  459 

Sa'gag,  the,  460 ;  of  the  Volsungs,  398- 
405,  460;  C.  282 

Sal'a-mis,  308 

Sa'lT-T,  C.  28 

Salmoneus  (sal-mo'nus),  357 

Sa'mos,  247  ;  C.  34 

Sam-o-thra'9e,  or  Samothracia  (sam-o- 
thra'shi-a),  an  island  near  the  coast 
of  Thrace,  242 

Samson  and  Hercules,  440 

Sanskrit,  studies  and  translations,  C.303 

Sappho  (saf'o),  149,  453,  454 ;  C.  107 

Sarama  (sa-ra'ma),  C.  36 

Sarameyas  (sa-ra-ma'yas),  C.36 

Sarasvati  (sar'as-wa-te).  See  Hindu  di- 
vinities (2) 

Sar-pe'don,  son  of  Jove  and  Europa,  71 

Sar-pe'don,  son  of  Jove  and  Laodamia, 
in  the  Trojan  War,  280,  290,  298 

Sat'urn  (Sa-tur'nus),  the  attempts  to 
identify  Cronus  and,  59 ;  his  rule  in 
Latium,  59,  362,  366 ;  C.  4, 34 

Sat-ur-na'U-a,  59 

Si-tur^nl-a,  366 


Satyrs  (sat'ers  or  sa'ters),  44,  152,  189. 
190,  195,  258;  described,  46,  186;  ex- 
tract from  R.  Buchanan's  Satyr,  186, 
187  ;  C.  131 

Savl-tar.    See  Hindu  divinities  (i) 

Sca-man'der,  272 

Sehe'ri-a,  332 

Schoeneus  (ske'nus),  139 

Sco'pas,  a  Greek  sculptor  of  Paros,  first 
half  of  the  4th  century  B.C. ;  he  made 
the  Niobe  group ;  see  also  C.  42,  y8, 

131 

Scylla(sil'a), described, 57,255;  andGlau- 
cus,  200, 201 ;  and  Nisus,  201, 202 ;  and 
Ulysses,  329,  330;  and  ^neas,  350; 
C.  so~^2  and  table  C  ;  142,  231—244 

Scyros  (si'ros),  260,  270,  279 

Scythia  (sith'i-a),  97,  192,  316;   C.  76 

Sea.    See  Waters 

Sea-monsters,  and  Hesione,  170;  and 
Andromeda,  212.  See  Waters,  Creek 
gods  of 

Seb.   See  Egyptian  divinities  (i) 

Se-le'ne,  29, 39,  43, 117;  and  Endymion> 
124,125;   C.  g8.    ?>e&  Diana 

Sem'e-le,  44,  64,  89,  152  ;  myth  of,  71- 
73,  261,  288;  E.  R.  Sill's  poem,  Sem- 
ele,  72,  73  ;  C.  42,  60 

Se-mir'a-mis,  147;  C.  106 

Se-mit'ic  races,  448 

Sem'nas.    See  Furies 

Sen'e-ca,  457 ;  references  to  tragedies 
of,  215 

Se-ra'pis,  Sa-ra'pis.  See  Egyptian  di- 
vinities (i) 

Serimnir  (sa-rem'ner),  376,  388 

Se-ri'phus,  208,  213;  C.  140-134 

Ses'tos,  142 

Set  or  Seth  (set).  See  Egyptian  divini- 
ties (i) 

Shu  (shoo).   See  Egyptian  divinities  (i) 

Sibyl  (sib'il),  352-361 ;  C.  243-234 

Si-chae'us,  351 

Sicily,  118,  161,  201,  247,  349,  350,  352 

Sicyon  (sishl-on),  or  Me-co'ne,  10;  C. 
10-13 

Siegelind  (seg'e-lind),405;  in  Wagner's 
Ring,  416-421 


576 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Siegfried  (seg'fred),  405-409,  420-429  ; 

Wagner's  opera  of,  421-426 ;   C.  282- 

283 
Sieglinde    (seg'lin-de),    416-421.     See 

Siegelind 
Siegmund    (seg'mund),    405,    416-421. 

See  Sigmund 
Siggeir  (sTg'gar),  398-400 
Sigi  (se'ge),  398,  405 
Sig'mund,  398-401,  405;  in  Wagner's 

Ring,  416-421 
Signy  (sig'neK  398-400 
Siguna  (se-goo'na),  393 
Sigurd  (ze'goort),  400-405,  450  n  ;    C. 

282,  282-283.    See  Siegfried 
Si-le'm,  44,  186,  258;   C.  uj 
Si-le'nus,  152,  157,  185,  1S6, 187  ;  C.  113, 

Sil-va'nus.    See  Sylvanus 

Silver  Age,  the,  10 

Sil'vT-a,  363 

Si-mon'i-des  of  Qe'os,  208,  453,  454 

Sinfiotli  (sin'fyot-le),  399,  400 

Si'non,  311,  312;   C.  223 

Si'rens,  described,  57,  205,  232,  233 ; 
and  Ulysses,  328,  329  ;  C.  S^-J-  ^nd 
table  C  ;  231-244 

Sir'i-us,  123 

Sis'y-phus,  214,  229;  betrays  Jove,  •]t^; 
marries  Merope,  1 24 ;  in  Tartarus, 
166,  200,  358  ;  C.  118,  2SS-2S7 ;  gene- 
alogy, 103,  table  G,  148  (2),  (5) 

Sita  (se'ta),  463 

Siva  (se'va).    See  Hindic  divinities  (2) 

Skaldic  poetry.  Skalds,  457,  458 

Skidbladnir  (skid-blad'ner),  394 

Skirnir's  Journey  (skir'ner),  386,  460 

Skrymir  (skre'mer),  380,  381 

Skuld  (skoold),  374 

Sleep  (Som'nus,  Hyp'nos),  54,  298,  352  ; 
cave  of,  176  ;   C.  4g,  125 

Sleipnir  (slap'ner),  388-391,  401 

Smintheus  (smin'thus),  Apollo,  C.  30, 
8g 

Smin'thi-a,  C.  30 

Smyrna  (smer'na),  452 

Sol  (He'lios),  61,  63 

So'ma.    See  Hindu  divinities  (i) 


Som'nus.    See  Sleep 

Soph'o-cles,  455  ;  references  to,  47,  215, 

227,  228,  261,266,  267,  268,  308,  309, 

315;  translations,  C.  2g8 
So'phron,  C.  42 
South  American  savages,  mental  state 

of,  441 
Spar'ta  (La5-e-da£'m6n),22,  23,  225,  242, 

243,  275,  289,  314. 
Sphinx,  262  ;   C.  i82-i8g 
Sri  (sre).    See  Hindu  divinities  (2) 
Stars,  the,  172,  175  ;   C.  i2j,  table  H 
Statius   (sta'shi-us),   references  to   the 

Thebaid  of,  141,  265;    to  the  Silvse, 

196;  to  the  Achilleid,  269, 308;  C.  2gg 
Ster'o-pe,  one  of  the  Pleiads 
Ster'o-pes,  C.  4 
Ste-sieh'o-rus,  313,  453 
Stheneboea   (sthen-e-be'a),   or    Stheno- 

boea,  daughter  of  lobates,  enamored 

of  Bellerophon 
Sthen'e-lus,  no 
Sthe'no,     daughter    of    Phorcys    and 

Ceto  ;  one  of  the  Gorgons 
Stro'phi-us,  315 
Stry'mon,  168;   C.  118 
Sturlason,  Snorri  (snor're  stobr'la-sun), 

connection  with  the  Prose  Edda,  459; 

C.  268-281 
Stym-pha'li-an    birds,    218;    and   lake, 

C.  1J6-162 
Styx  (stix),  47,  71,  94,   151,   189,  274, 

308,  327  ;   C.  44-4^^  49 
Suadela  (swa-de'la).    See  Peitho 
Sun,  cattle  of  the,  328,  330.    See  Helios 

and  Sol 
Sun-myth^432,  435 
Surter  (soor'ter),  395 
Survival,  theory  of  myth,  442 
Surya  (soor'ya).  See  Hindu  divinities{i) 
Svadilfari  (swa-dil-fa're),  378,  379 
Swanhild  (swon'hild),  405 
Syl'vans,  186 
Syl-va'nus,  61,  195 

Sym-pleg'a-des,  231  ;     C.  163-167  (In- 
terpret.) 
Syr'inx  and  Pan,  66,  67  ;  C.  43,  J7 
Syrtis  (ser'tis),  255 


INDEX  OF  MYTHOLOGICAL  SUBJECTS 


577 


Taenarus  (ten'a-rus),  or   Taenarum,   51, 

166;   C.  118 
Ta'gus,  97 

Ta'lus,  242,  243  ;   C.  170-iyi 
Tan'a-is  river,  97  ;   C.  76 
Tan'ta-lus,  77,  99,  166,  275,  358;   C.  y8 

and  table  I ;  118,  2j_^-2jy 
Tar'chon,  367 

Tarn'helm,  414,  415,  423,  427,  428 
Tarn'kap-pe,  406 
Tarpeian  (tar-pe'yan)  Rock,  366 
Tar'ta-rus,   5,  6,   7,   51,   97,    159,    357; 

name  of  Pluto,  53  ;   C.  44-46 
Tau'rl,  Tau'ri-ans,  a  people  of  what  is 

now  the  Crimea;    Iphigenia  among 

the  Taurians,  281,  316;   C.  igb 
Tau'rus,  Mount,  96,  253;  C.  76 
Td'a-mon,  75,  222,  225,  237,  239,  276, 

280 ;  C.  igo-ig4  ( i ) 
Te-lem'a-chus,  279,  314,  328,  339-345; 

C.  igo-ig4  (4),  231-244 
Tel'e-phus,  son  of  Hercules  and  Au'ge  ; 

wounded  by  Achilles,  but  cured  by 

the  rust  of  the  spear 
Tel'lus,  59,  233.    See  Gcea 
Tem'pe,   a  vale   in  Thessaly,   through 

which  ran  the  river  Peneiis,  1 1 1,  270  ; 

Cjc?(4) 
Ten'e-dos,  113;   C.  8g 
Tereus  (te'rus),  249 
Ter'mi-nus,  61 
Ter-pan'der,  .C.  26 
Terp-sich'o-re,  the  muse  of  choral  dance 

and  song,  37  ;   C.  38  (4) 
Ter'ra.    See  Earth  and  Gcea 
Tethys  (te'this),  4,  22,  55,  67,  204 ;   C.  4 
Teucer  (tii'ser),   son  of  the  river-god 

Scamander   and   the   nymph   Idaea ; 

first  king  of  Troy;  C.  igo-ig4  (5) 
Teucer   (tu'ser),  son  of  Telamon  and 

Hesione,   276;    C.  igo-ig4  (i),  (5), 

20'j 
Teucri  (tu'crl) :  the  Trojans 
Tha-las'si-os  :  an  epithet  applied  to  Hy- 
men because  he  brought  safely  over 

the  sea  to  their  home  a  shipload  of 

kidnaped  Athenian  maidens 
Tha-li'a,  one  of  the  Graces,  36 


Tha-li'a,  the  muse  of  comedy,  37 
Tham'y-ris,  or  Tham'y-ras,  451 
Than'a-tos,  Mors.    See  Death 
Thar-ge'li-a,  C.  30 
Thau'mas,  father  of  the  Harpies  and  of 

Iris,  57 ;  C.  50-^2,  table  C 
The'a,  \;   C.  4 
The-ag'e-nes    of    Rhegium    (re'ji-um), 

439 
The'ba-is,  an  epic    by    Statius  on  the 
Seven  against  Thebes  ;  Pope's  trans- 
lation, C.  2gg.    See  Statius 
Thebes  (thebs),  The'bas,  in  Boeotia,  71, 
75,  207,  216;  founded,  87,  89,  C.  70; 
Bacchus  at,  153-155;  misfortunes  of, 
261,  262,  265-268  ;   C.  110-112 
Thebes  (thebs),  The'bae,  in  Egypt,  20 
Thebes  (thebs),  the  Seven  against,  206, 

264,  265-268,  453,  455 
The'mis,  4;  attributes  of,  38;   C.  4,  18 
The-oc'ri-tus,  215,  243,455;  selections 
from  translations  by  Lang  of  various 
idyls,   198-200,  222,   223 ;    Lityerses 
song,  224  ;  C.  2g8.   See  Andreiv  Lang 
and   Calverley,  in  Index  of  Modern 
Authors 
Ther-san'der,  268 
Ther-si'tes,  286,  307 
Theseus  (the'sus),    17,    168,  206,   220, 
231.  235'  237,  239,  243,  246,  263,  275  ; 
myth  of,  250-260;  early  adventures, 
251,   252  ;  and  Ariadne,   252  et  seq., 
270 ;  translation  of  Catullus,  LXIV, 
by  C.  M.  Gayley,  253-257  ;  later  ad- 
ventures, 258-260;   C.  174,  176-181 
Thes-mo-pho'ri-a,  C.  114-117 
Thes'pi-ae,  lion  of,  216;   C.  i£6-i62 
Thes'sa-ly,  6,  104,  no,  175,  192,   193, 

206,  207,  214,  229,  231,  258,  269 
Thes'ti-us,  275;   C.  148  (3),  (5),  168 
Thes'ty-lis,  a  maid  in  the  pastorals  of 

Theocritus  and  Virgil 
The'tis,  the  Nereid,  55,  90,   198,  205, 
269-272,  277,  279,  285,  299,  300,  304, 
308 ;    C.  lo-i^,  ^0-^52,  table  C,  igo- 

194  (I) 
Thialfi  (the-al'fe),  380,  383,  385 
This'be,  147-149;   C.  106 


578 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Thok,  392 

Thor,  376,  432,  460;  deeds  of,  378- 
386,  393-396;  recovery  of  his  ham- 
mer, 379,  380 ;  visit  to  Jotunheim, 
380-386 ;  as  Dormer  in  Wagner's 
Ring,  412,  415 ;   C.  268-281 

Thoth  (thoth  or  tot).  See  Egyptian  di- 
vinities (2) 

Thrace,  24,  218,  231,  249,  347 

Three  Daughters  of  King  O'Hara; 
analogy  of  incident,  C.  101-102,  118, 

Thrinacia  (thri-na'shi-a),  328,  330.  See 
'  Trinacria 

Thrym  (thriim),  379,  380 

Thucydides  (thu-sid'i-des),  C.  61 

Thy-es'tes,  275,  314;   C.  jgo-ig^  (2) 

Thy-i'a-de§,  C.  42.    See  Bacchus 

Thy-o'ne,  C.  J4 

Thyrsis  (ther'sis),  an  ideal  shepherd  of 
Greek  pastoral  poetry.  See  Theocri- 
tus, Idyl  i;  Virgil,  Bucolics  y ;  and 
M.  Amold^s  elegy 

Thyrsus  (ther'sus),  the,  45,  153,  156; 
C.  110-112 

Ti'ber,  362,  365 

Ti'ber,  Father,  the  river-god,  62,  365 

Ti-bul'lus,  457  ;  reference  to,  200 

Time,  3 

Tiresias  (ti-re'shi-as  or  ti-re'sT-as),  266, 
268,  327,  328,  330,  451 ;   C.  i82-i8g, 

231-244 

Tiryns  (ti'rins),  a  city  in  Argolis,  where 
Hercules  was  brought  up 

Ti-siph'o-ne,  54,  357 

Ti'tans,  4,  5,  7  ;  war  of,  5,  6 ;  in  Tar- 
tarus, 51,  357  ;  in  the  Fortunate  Isles, 
52;   C.4 

Ti-tho'nus,  and  Aurora,  177, 179;  Tenny- 
son's poem,  177-179;  family  connec- 
tions, 276,  280 ;  C.  126-127,  i90-ig4 
(5) 

Tit'y-rus,  an  ideal  goatherd  of  Greek 
and  Latin  pastorals.  See  Theocritus, 
Idyl 3,  and  Virgil,  Bucolics  i 

Tit'y-us,  slain  by  Apollo,  27,  92,  357  ; 
'C.74 

Tmo'lus,  Mount,  96,  no,  iii  ;  C  76 


To'mi,  456 

Toxeus  (tox'us),  238,  240 

Tra'ehis,  175 

Tragic  poets  of  Greece,  455 

Trident,  Neptune's,  56,  170 

Tri-na'cri-a,  Thri-na'cri-a,  Thrinacia 
(thri-na'shi-a) :  the  island  of  Sicily, 
having  three  promontories 

Trip-tol'e-mus,  161  ;  and  the  Eleusinian 
mysteries,  164,  165 

Tris'ti-a,  Ovid's,  456 

Trit-o-ge-ne'a,  Tri-to'nT-a :  an  epithet  of 
Minerva  (Athene),  meaning  born  near 
Lake  Tritonis,  or  headborn,  or  born 
on  the  third  day 

Tri'ton,  56,  58,  204,  350 

Tri'tons,  the,  70 

Triv'i-a,  Hecate,  or  Diana  of  the  Cross- 
ways,  54 

Troezen  (tre'zen),  a  city  in  Argolis. 
251 ;   C.  176-181 

Trol-lus,  son  of  Priam,  killed  by  Achil- 
les, 276;   C.  igo-ig4  (5),  ig6 

Trojan  War,  mentioned,  75,  84,  86,  98, 
179,  206,  237,  259,  265,  45I'  45-'  455  ; 
houses  concerned  in,  269-276;  origin, 
277-279 ;  narrative  of,  279-306 ;  fall 
of  Troy,  307-312;  survivors  of  the 
war,  313-317 

Tro-pho'ni-us,  oracle  of,  C.30 

Tros,  son  of  Erichthonius  of  Troy,  and 
grandson  of   Dardanus,   C.  igo-ig4 

(5) 
Troy,  23,  no,  169,  170,  177,  206,  225; 

royal  family  of,  276,  C.  jgo-ig4  (5); 

the  war  at,  277-313  ar\d  passim;  C. 

1 1 g- 1 20,  ig^,  228-230 
TulDal,  440 

Tubal-Cain  (tu'bal-can'),  440 
Tur'nus,  362-364,  367-372 
Twelve  Brothers,  story  of  the ;  analogy 

of  incident,  C.  101-102 
Twilight  of  the  Gods,  Wagner's  opera 

of  the,  426-430 
Ty-a'ne-an,  79;   C.  63 
Ty'che.    See  Fortuna 
Tydeus   (ti'dus),  84,  265,  280;  C.  /68, 

table  K 


INDEX  OF  MYTHOLOGICAL  SUBJECTS 


579 


Tydides    (ti-di'des),    C.    77.     See   Dio- 

mede 
Tyndareus  (tin-da're-us),  or  Tyndarus 

(tin'da-rus),  242,  269,  338;  family  of, 

275,  C.  igo-jg4  (3) 
Tyndaridae    (tin-dar'i-de),    Castor    and 

Pollux,  243  ;  C.  76 
Tyndaris  (tin'da-ris) :  patronymic  of  a 

female    descendant    of   Tyndareus; 

Helen  or  Clytemnestra ;  C.  "jy 
Typhoeus   (ti-fo'us),    youngest   son   of 

Gsea,  later  identified  with  Typhon 
Ty'phon,  6,   7,  350;    also    called    the 

son  of  Typhoeus  and  a  hurricane ; 

C.8 
Tyr  (ter),  or  Ziu,  377,  378,  396 
Tyrian  dye,  82,  1 1 1 ;   C.  75 
Tyrian  flowers,  94,  137 
Tyrians,  of  Cadmus,  88 ;  of  Dido,  351 
Ty'ro,  170 
Tyrrheus  (tir'us),  363 

Ulysses  (u-lis'es),  wanderings  of,  men- 
tioned, 168,  206,  265;  descent  of, 
275,  C.  igo-ig4  (4)  ;  in  Trojan  War, 
278-314;  and  Penelope,  279,  338- 
344;  arms  of  Achilles,  308;  U.  and 
Philoctetes,  309 ;  the  Palladium,  the 
Wooden  Plorse,  310,  314;  Telema- 
chus,  314,  339-345;  wanderings  of 
U.  (Odyssey),  318-345;  the  Lotos- 
eaters,  318,  319;  Tennyson's  Lotos- 
eaters,  319,  320;  the  Cyclopes,  320- 
323>  349;  ^olus  and  the  bag  of 
winds,  323 ;  the  Lsestrygonians,  324 ; 
the  isle  of  ^aea,  Circe,  324-327 ; 
Dobson's  Prayer  of  the  Swine  to 
Circe,  325,  326;  visit  to  Hades,  327, 
328;  the  Sirens,  328,  329;  Scylla 
and  Charybdis,  329,  330 ;  cattle  of 
the  Sun,  330;  Calypso,  331;  the 
Phasacians,  332-337 ;  Lang's  Song 
of  Phaeacia,  335,  336;  Nausicaa,  332 
et  seq.;  return  to  Ithaca,  337  ;  fate 
of  the  suitors,  338-344 ;  Tennyson's 
Ulysses,  344,  345 ;   C.  231-244. 

Underworld  (Hades),  described,  47-52; 
the   garden   of   Proserpine,  49,  50; 


Greek  divinities  of,  47,  52-54 ;  rivers 
of,  47  ;  inhabitants  of,  and  communi- 
cation with  them,  51  ;  judges  of,  51, 
53,  71,  246;  myths  of  greater  gods, 
159-168;  Hercules' visit,  220;  Ulys- 
ses' visit,  327,  328;  yEneas'  visit, 
353-361 ;  C.  44-46,  47,  4g.  For  the 
Norse  Underworld,  see  Hel 

U-ra'nY-a,  the  muse  of  astronomy,  37, 
C.  38  (4)  ;  also  the  Aphrodite  of 
ideal  love,  C,  34.  See  M.  Arnold's 
Urania 

U'ra-nus,  Ouranos  (oo'ra-nos),  father 
of  Cronus,  4,  5,  6 ;   C.  4.   See  Heaven 

Urd  (oord),  374 

Ushas  (66'shas).  See  I/indu  divinities 
(I) 

Utgard-Loki  (oot'gard-lo'ke),  382-386 

Vach.    See  Hindu  divinities  (i)  and  (2) 

Va'la,  C.  log 

Va-le'ri-us  Flac'cus,  reference  to,  269; 

C.  2gg 
Val-hal'la,  374-376,  378,  387-390,  394, 

414-419,  4-6-430 
Valkyrias    (val-kir'yas),  Valkyrs    (val'- 

kers),  or  Valkyries.    See  Valkyries 
Valkyrie  (val-kirl),  Wagner's  opera  of 

the,  416-421 
Valkyries    (val-kir'is),    Valkyrs    (val'- 

kers),   or  Valkyrias,    376,   388,   393, 

402,  415,  418,  420,  421,432 
Valmiki  (val-me'ke),  463 
Varuna  (var'oo-na).    See  Hindu  divini- 
ties (i) 
Vayu    (va'yoo).    See  Hindu  divinities 

(I) 

Ve  (va),  373,  374 

Vedas  (va'da§),  the,  462 

Vedic  (va'dik)  religion.  See  Hindti  di- 
vinities (i) 

Ven-er-a'li-a,  C.  34 

Ve'nus  (Aphrodite),  daughter  of  Dione, 
19 ;  wife  of  Vulcan,  26 ;  foam-born, 
31;  attributes,  31-34;  her  various 
influence,  31,  32;  favorite  animals 
and  cities,  32 ;  artistic  conceptions 
of,  32 ;  E.  R.  Sill's  poem,  The  Venus 


58o 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


of  Milo,  32-34;  attendants  of,  35, 
36 ;  star  of,  40  ;  among  the  Romans, 
59;  Cypris,  68,  69,  and«a'/^r.,-  mother 
of  Harmonia,  71,  89;  myths  of,  125- 
1 50 ;  love  for  Mars,  and  Anchises, 
125,  280;  Adonis,  126-128;  Lang's 
translation  of  Bion's  Lament  for 
Adonis,  126-128;  Cupid  and  Psyche, 
128-139;  Atalanta  and  Hippomenes, 
139-141  ;  Hero  and  Leander,  141- 
145;  Pygmalion  and  Galatea,  145- 
147;  Pyramus  and  Thisbe,  147-149; 
Phaon,  149;  her  vengeance,  150; 
Pluto  and  Proserpine,  1 59 ;  Paris, 
278,  279  ;  in  Trojan  War,  284,  289, 
295.  313  ;  ^neas,  346,  352,  354,  372 ; 
as  a  moon-goddess,  432  ;  C.  34,  jj, 
100-106 

Verdandi  (ver-dan'de),  374 

Vergelmir  (ver-gel'mer),  373 

Ver-tum'nus,  61,  195;   C.  139 

Ves'per,  138 

Ves'ta  (Hestia),  5,  19,  35,  59;   C.  37 

Vestal  Virgins,  35 

Victoria  (Ni'ke),  41 

Vidar  (ve'dar),  376,  395,  396 

Vigrid  (veg'red),  395 

Vili  (ve'le),  373,  374 

Vin'golf,  374 

Vir'gil  (Ver-gil'i-us),  account  of,  and  of 
the  ^'Eneid,  456;  references  to  Geor- 
gics,  141,  202;  to  .^.neid,  47,  51, 
246,  308,  310-312,349-353,  367,  370; 
to  Bucolics,  223  ;  outline  of  /Eneid, 
346-372  ;  Tennyson's  poem  to  Virgil, 
346 ;  the  ^neid,  C.  24^-260 ;  trans- 
lations, 2gg 

Vishnu  (vish'noo).  See  Hindu  divini- 
ties (2) 

Vitharr  (ve'thar).    See  Vidar 

Void,  4 

Volscens  (vol'seng),  369,  370 

Volsung  (vol'soong),  Volsungs,  the 
saga  of,  398-405,  460 ;  in  the  Ring 
of  the  Nibelung,  416,  418-430;  C. 
282 

Volsunga  Saga  (vel-soon'ga  sa'ga).  See 
Volsung 


Vrit'ra.  See  Hindu  divinities  (l) 
Vurcan(Vul-ca'nus,  Hephaestus), one  of 
the  great  gods,  19  ;  meaning  of  name, 
24;  attributes,  24-26;  his  lameness, 
25,  90;  his  wife,  26,  61  ;  among  the 
Romans,  Mulciber,  59 ;  Harmonia's 
necklace  made  by,  89,  265 ;  myths 
of,  90,  91  ;  chariot  of  the  Sun  made 
^X'  95;  Y.  and  Orion,  122;  Talus, 
242;  father  of  Periphetes,  251;  Ari- 
adne, 253;  armor  of  Achilles,  300; 
of  ^neas,  372 ;  interpretations  of, 
434,  440  ;  C.  2g 
Vyasa  (vya'sa),  463 

Wagner's  Ring  of  the  Nibelung,  410- 

430 

Walse  (val'se),  416,  418 

Walsungs  (val'soongs),  416.  See  Vol- 
sung 

Waltraute  (val'trou-te),  427,  428 

Water- Nymphs,  46,  58,  189,  211 

Waters,  Greek  gods  of,  55-58 ;  older 
dynasty,  55 ;  younger  dynasty,  55, 
56 ;  lesser  divinities,  56-58 ;  Words- 
worth's "'Phe  world  is  too  much 
with  us,"  58 ;  myths  of  Neptune,  169- 
171 ;  of  lesser  divinities,  198-205;  C. 
141 

Winds,  the,  Greek  names  and  attributes 
of,  38,  39;  myths  of,  172,  179;  C.  j8 
(9),  J2^,  table  H 

Wo'dan,  Wo' tan,  Wo'den,  375,  412-430. 
See  Odift 

Woman,  origin  of,  Greek,  1 1 

Wooden  Horse,  the,  310—312,  337 

World,  conception  of,  among  the 
Greeks,  42,  43 

World  egg,  3 

Worms,  407,  409 

Wo'tan.    See  IVodan 

Xanten  (zan'ten),  405,  406 

Xanthus  (zan'thus)  river,  91,  97;  C.  yi, 

76 
Xuthus  (zu'thus),  son  of   Hellen,    16; 

genealogy,  C.  loj,  table  G ;  ij2  (2), 
.    (S).  ^74 


INDEX  OF  MYTHOLOGICAL  SUBJECTS 


581 


Yam'a  and  Yami  (yam'e).    See  Hindu 

divmittes  (i) 
Yggdrasil  (ig'dra-sil),  374 
Ymir  (ii'mer  or  e'mer),  373,  374,  394 
Yssel-land  (Ts'el),  406 

Zan'te,  153 

Zeph'y-rus,  38,  39,  270;  andHyacinthus, 
94;    Zephyr  and    Psyche,    129-132; 

C.3S{.9) 


Ze'tes,  39,  230 

Ze'thus,  75;   C.  62 

Zeus  (zus).    ?)ee  Jupiter 

Zeuxis    (zux'is),    a    Greek    painter    of 

Heraclea ;  flourished  about  424  B.C. 
Ziu  or  Tyr  (ter).    See  Tyr 
Zodiac,  C.  1J6-162  (Interpret) 
Zo-ro-as'ter,  463 
Zulus,  myths  among,  448 


INDEX   OF   MODERN  AUTHORS 
AND  ARTISTS 


[Ordinary  figures  refer  to  pages  of  the  Text.  Figures  in  italics  preceded  by  C. 
refer  to  sections  of  the  Commentary  and  incidentally  to  the  corresponding  sections 
in  the  Text.    For  explanation  of  the  diacritical  marks  see  p.  543.] 


Acland,  H.  W.  C.  228-3JO,  Plains  of 
Troy 

Addison,  Joseph,  1672-17 19.  C.  2jj- 
^57i  Spectator,  No.  343  ;  2gg,  transl. 
Metamorphoses 

Akenside  (a'ken-sid),  Mark,  1721-1770. 
C.38  (4),  (9),  128,  i2g-ijo.  Pleasures 
of  Imagination;  C.  j8  (4),  (11),  Ode 
on  Lyric  Poetry,  Ode  to  Hesper ; 
^9,  Ode  to  Sleep 

Albani  (al-ba'ne),  Francesco,  1 578-1 660 
(paint).  C.j6,  Mercury  and  Apollo  ; 
95,  Diana  and  her  Nymphs,  Actason 
(two  pictures,  Dresden) ;  141,  Galatea 
and  Cupids 

Aldrich,  T.  B.,  1836-1907.  C.  795,  Pil- 
lared Arch  and  Sculptured  Tower 

Alfieri  (al-fya're),  Vittorio,  1 749-1 803. 
C.  i6g,  Merope 

Anderson,  R.  B.  C.  268-281,  Norse 
Mythology ;  Horn's  Scandinavian 
Literature ;  Younger  Edda 

Armstrong,  John,  1709-1779.  C.jo,jo- 
§2,  68,  140-1^4,  The  Art  of  Preserv- 
ing Health 

Armstrong,  W.  J.  C.  228-2J0,  Over 
Ilium  and  Ida 

Arnold,  Sir  Edwin,  1832-1904.  Refer- 
ence to,  126;  C.  joj,  Indian  Idylls, 
Light  of  Asia ;  j2,  Hymn  of  the  Priest- 
ess of  Diana  ;  104,  transl.  Musaeus  ; 
ig6,  Iphigenia 

Arnold,  M.,  1822-1888.  Quotation  from 
Thyrsis,  224,  225;  from  Dejaneira, 
228 ;    his    Merope,    242 ;    from   The 


New  Philomela,  250;  from  Empedo- 
cles  on  Etna,  274  ;  from  Balder  Dead, 
388-397  ;  C.  8,  87,  Empedocles  ;  j8 
(3),  (4),  Euphrosyne,  Urania ;  42,  Bac- 
chanalia ;  SO-J2,  The  New  Sirens ; 
1J6-162,  Fragment  of  a  Dejaneira, 
Merope,  Thyrsis ;  1J4,  The  New 
Philomela;  i82-i8g,  Fragment  of  an 
Antigone ;  231-244,  The  Strayed 
Reveller ;  268-281,  Balder  Dead. 
Ashe,  Thomas,  1836-1889.  C.  38  (i), 
The  Lost  Eros 

Bacon,  Lord,  1 561-1626.  Wisdom  of 
the  Ancients  ;  his  method  of  explain- 
ing Greek  Myths,  439,  C.  114-117 

Baldwin,  James.  C.  282,  The  Story  of 
Siegfried,  New  York,  1888 

Bandinelli  (ban-de-nerie),B.,  1487-1559 
(sculpt.).  C.  1J6-162,  Hercules  and 
Cacus 

Banks,  J.  Transl.  Hesiod,  Callimachus, 
and  Theognis  (Bohn's  Library) 

Barnfield,  Richard,  1 574-1627.  C.  1J4, 
Song,  "  As  it  fell  upon  a  day"  (Philo- 
mela) 

Bartsch  (bartsh),  K.  F.  Der  Nibelunge 
Not,  461  n  ;   C.  283 

Bates,  H.  (paint.).    C.  101-102,  Psyche 

Baumeister  (bou'ml-ster).  Denkmaler 
d.  klassischen  Altertums  ;  see  List 
of  Illustrations 

Beattie  (be'ti),  James,  1735-1803.  C. 
1J6-162,  Battle  of  Pygmies  and 
Cranes ;  ig^,  Judgment  of  Paris 


582 


INDEX  OF  MODERN  AUTHORS  AND  ARTISTS       583 


Beaumont  (bo'mont),  Francis,  1 584- 
1616,  and  John  Fletcher,  1579-1625. 
C.  j8  (i),  Cupid's  Revenge;  30-^2, 
ij6-i8i.  Maid's  Tragedy 

Beddoes  (bed'oz), Thomas  Lovell,  1803- 
1849.  ^-  ^°5->  Pygmalion ;  114-iiy, 
Stygian  Naiades 

Benfey  (ben'fi)  and  Cosquin  (co-kan'). 
Cited  by  Lang,  447  n 

Bennett,  W.  C,  1820 .  C.  los,  Pyg- 
malion 

Bernini  (ber-ne'ne),  Lorenzo,  1598- 
1680  (sculpt.).  C.  48,  114-11J,  Pluto 
and  Proserpine ;  8g,  Apollo  and 
Daphne 

Beyschlag  (bi'shlach),  J.  R.,  1838 

(paint.).  C.  101-J02,  Psyche;  //<?, 
Orpheus  and  Eurydice 

Birch,  R.  C.  J02,  Guide  to  Egyptian 
Rooms 

Blackie,  J.  S.,  1809-189 5.  C.  141,  Gala- 
tea; 176-181,  Ariadne,  The  Naming 
of  Athens  ;  795,  Judgment  of  Paris  ; 
ig6,  2g8,  transl.  i^schylus 

Blake,  William,  1757-1827.  To  the 
Muses,  iii 

Bland  and  Merivale.  C.  2g8,  transl. 
Greek  Anthology 

Bodenhausen  (bo'den  hou'zen),  C.  von 
(paint.).    C.  104,  Hero  and  Leander 

Bodmer,  J.  J.  Referred  to,  461  ;  publ. 
Nibelungenlied,  C.  28J 

Bologna  (b6-l6n'ya),  Giovanni  di,  1524- 
1608  (sculpt.).  C.j6,  Flying  Mercury; 
1^6-162,  Hercules  and  Centaur 

Bordone  (bor-do'na),  Paris,  1 500-1 571 
(paint.).  C.  8j,  Apollo,  Marsyas,  and 
Midas 

Bouguereau  (boo-ge-ro'),  A.  W.,  1825- 
1965  (paint.).  C.  js.  Birth  of  Venus  ; 
j8  (i),  Cupid  and  a  Butterfly;  42, 
Youth  of  Bacchus ;  /ji,  Nymphs  and 
Satyr 

Bowring,  E.  A.  C.  22,  transl.  Schil- 
ler; j<?  (2),  Goethe's  Ganymede;  60, 
Schiller's  Semele ;  140,  Schiller's 
Cranes  of  Ibycus ;  i^^,  Schiller's 
Pegasus  in  Harness 


Brandi  (bran'de),  Giacinto,  1623-1691 
(paint.).  C.  /7j,  Daedalus  fastening 
Wings  on  Icarus  (Dresden) 

Bridges,    Robert,     1844 .     Extract 

from  Eros  and  Psyche,  132  ;  C.  lo-ij, 
Prometheus ;  42,  Feast  of  Bacchus ; 
loi,  Eros  and  Psyche ;  igg,  Achilles  in 
Scyros ;  2j  1-244,  Return  of  Ulysses 

Brooks,  C.  T.,  1813-1883.  C.  207, 
Schiller's  Parting  of  Hector  and 
Andromache 

Browning,  E.  B.,  1806-1861.  Reference 
to,  126;  extract  from  The  Dead  Pan, 
183;  C.  lo-ij,  Prometheus  Bound; 
101-102,  Psyche ;  iji.  Flush,  or 
Faunus ;  141,  transl.  Theocritus ;  776- 
181,  paraphrases  of  Nonnus  and 
Hesiod ;  207,  paraphrase  of  Homer 

Browning,  R.,  181 2-1889.  Passage  from 
his  Balaustion's  Adventure,  107-110; 
C.  81,  Apollo  and  the  Fates  ;  8j,  i^b- 
162,  Balaustion's  Adventure ;  118, 
Eurydice  and  Orpheus  ;  i2g-ijo.  Pan 
and  Luna ;  1^6-162,  Aristophanes' 
Apology ;  176-181,  Artemis  Prolo- 
gizes ;  ig6,  Agamemnon ;  2^5-2^71 
Ixion 

Bryant,  Jacob.  Advocate  of  theological 
interpretation,  440 

Bryant,  W.  C,  1 794-1878.  C.  i4g- 
j^4,  transl.  Simonides'  Lament  of 
Danae ;  C.  2j  1-244,  transl.  Odyssey 
(1871) 

Buchanan,  R.,  1841-1901.  Cited  or 
quoted :  from  his  Satyr,  186,  187 ; 
from  his  Naiad,  189-191  ;  C.  4,  Cloud- 
land  ;  47,  Ades,  King  of  Hell ;  30-32, 
Naiad  ;  g8,  Selene,  the  Moon  ;  103, 
Pygmalion  the  Sculptor ;  107,  Sappho 
on  the  Leucadian  Rock ;  118,  Or- 
pheus ;  i2g-ijo.  Pan ;  14T,  Poly- 
pheme's  Passion  ;  143,  Proteus  ;  2ji- 
244,  Cloudland,  Penelope ;  268-281, 
Balder  the  Beautiful 

Buckley,  T.  A.  C.  2g8,  transl.  y^^'schy- 
lus  and  Euripides 

Bugge  (boog'e),  Sophus.  C.  268-281, 
edition  of  Elder  Edda 


,84 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Bulfinch,  S.  G.,  1809-1870.  Extract 
from  his  translation  of  Schiller's  Ideal 
and  Life,  227,  228 

Kulfinch,  Thomas,  1796-1867.  The  Age 
of  Fable  ;  see  Preface  to  this  volume 

Burges  (ber'jes),  G.  C.  2g8,  transl. 
Greek  Anthology 

Burne-Jones,  Sir  Edward,  1 833-1 898 
(paint.).  His  Thisbe,  148;  C.j<?(i), 
Cupid ;  101-102,  Pan  and  Psyche ; 
/Of,  Pygmalion ;  106,  Cupid,  Pyra- 
mus,  Thisbe ;  118,  Orpheus  and  Euryd- 
ice;  /J/,  Nymphs;  i4g-j^4,  Perseus 
and  the  Graias  ;  igg.  Feast  of  Peleus; 
231-24.4,  The  Wine  of  Circe 

Burns.  R.,  1759-1796.  C  jo.  The  Win- 
ter Night;  /j-jr,  To  John  Taylor 

Butcher,  S.  H.,  and  A.  Lang.  C.  2ji- 
244,  2g8,  transl.  Odyssey 

Butler,  Samuel,  161 2-1 680.  C.  j2,  IIu- 
dibras 

Byron,  George  Gordon,  Lord,  1788- 
1824.  Quoted  or  referred  to,  452; 
Prometheus,  13  ;  Age  of  Bronze,  15; 
Childe  Harold,  311;  C.  lo-i^,  Pro- 
metheus, Ode  to  Napoleon ;  J2,  yo, 
Don  Juan ;  104,  228-230,  Bride  of 
Abydos ;  27,  30,  34,  jj-,  38  (4),  41, 
^4,  78,  g7,  228-230,  231-244,  refer- 
ences to  Childe  Harold 

Call,  W.  M.  W.,  1817-1890.  C.  81,  Ad- 
metus ;  83,  Alcestis ;  176-181,  Ari- 
adne ;  268-281,  Balder,  Thor 

Calverley,  C.  S.  (Blayds),  1831-1884. 
C.  100,  Death  of  Adonis ;  110-112, 
141,  1J6-162,  170-171,  2g8,  transl. 
Theocritus  ;  2gg,  transl.  Horace 

Campbell,  Lewis,  1830-1908.  C.  2g8, 
transl.  Sophocles 

Campbell,  Thomas,  1777-1844.  C.  38 
(11),  Two  Songs  to  the  Evening 
Star;  163-167,  transl.  of  part  of  Eu- 
ripides' Medea 

Canova  (ca-no'va),  Antonio,  1757-1822 
(sculpt).  C.  3J,  Venus  Victrix;  38 
(3),  Graces ;  101-102,  Cupid  and 
Psyche;  I4g-ij4,  Perseus;  173,  Daed- 


alus and  Icarus ;  176-181,  Theseus ; 
795,  Paris;  204,  Ajax;  207,  Hector 

Carlisle,  Lord,  1802-1864.  C.  231-244, 
Diary,  note  on  Corfu  and  the  Phaea- 
cians 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  1795-1881.  Transl.  of 
fragments  of  Nibelungenlied,  409 ; 
C.283 

Carracci  (car-rat'che),  Annibale,  1560- 
1609  (paint.).  C.  24-2^,  Jupiter  and 
Juno 

Carracci  (car-rat'che),  Lodovico,  1555- 
1619,  and  Annibale  (paint.).  C.  g8, 
Diana  and  Endymion  ;  141,  Polyphe- 
mus, Galatea,  Acis 

Cellini  (chel-le'ne),  Benvenuto,  1500- 
157 1  (sculpt).  C  .j^r-^j,  Jupiter ;  27, 
Minerva ;  33,  Venus  ;  36,  Mercury : 
i4g-i^4,  Perseus,  Perseus  saving  An- 
dromeda 

(j]er-van'tes,  Miguel  de,  1 547-1616.  Ref- 
erence to,  14;   C.  16 

Chapman,  G.,  1 559-1634.  C  231-244, 
2g8,  transl.  Iliad  and  Odyssey ;  104, 
Marlowe's  Hero  and  Leander;  Son- 
net on  Chapman's  Homer,  see  Keats 

Chaucer,  Geoffrey,  1340  (or  I328)-I400. 
References  in  C:  The  Former  Age, 
10-13 ;  The  Knight's  Tale,  34,  gj, 
176-/8/  ;  The  Hous  of  Fame,  38  (2), 
(9)>  75.  ^Z?.  /76-/<?/.  199,  243-234 ; 
The  Legende  of  Good  Women,  83, 
106,  /4g-/34,  163-/67,  /74,  /76-/8/, 
243-234 ;  The  Complaint  of  Mars, 
34,  83 ;  The  Complaint  of  Venus, 
34;  The  Dethe  of  Blaunche,  /23, 
/gg,  226;  The  Court  of  Love  (}),  34, 
83;  The  Cuckow  and  Nightingale, 
or  Boke  of  Cupid  (?),  38  (i);  The 
Romaunt  of  the  Rose  (?),  /32-133 ; 
Troilus  and  Criseyde,  /g6,  226 

Church,  F.  S.    C.  /0-/3,  Pandora 

Clapp,  E.  B.   Greek  Morality,  etc.,  455  n 

Clarke,  J.  F.  C.  303,  304,  Ten  Great 
Religions 

Cleasby  and  Vigfusson  (vig'foo-sun). 
Icelandic-English  Dictionary,  458  «; 
C.300 


INDEX  OF  MODERN  AUTHORS  AND  ARTISTS       585 


Clough,  A.  H..  1819-1861.     C.  9j,  Ac- 

taeon ;  g8,  Epi  Latmo,  Selene 
Coleridge,  Hartley,  1796-1849.  C.io-ij, 

Prometheus;  795,  Sonnet  on  Homer 
Coleridge,    S.    T.,    1772-1834.     C.  gj, 

Kubla  Khan 
Collins,    Mortimer,    1827-1876.     C.  4g, 

The  Ivory  Gate 
Collins,    William,    1721-1759.      C.  ijf, 

IJ2-IJJ,  The  Passions 
Collins,  W.  L.     C.  2g8,   sgg.    Ancient 

Classics  for  English  Readers 
Colvin,  S.,  1845 •    ^-  4°'>  -^  Creek 

Hymn 
Conington, J.,  1825-1869.  6^ .599, transl. 

.^neid,  Horace's  Odes,  etc. 
Correggio  (cor-red'jo),  A.  A.,  1494-1534 

(paint.).     C.  J2,  Diana;   57,  Jupiter 

and  lo ;  62,  Antiope  ;  i^g-ij^,  Danae 
Cottle,   A.    S.     C.  268-281,    Icelandic 

Poetry 
Cowper,    William,    1 731-1800.     Transl. 

Homer,  18,  299,  331,  340,  341 ;   C.  30, 

Yardley  Oak ;  44-46,  2j  1-244,  ^5S~ 

^57,  Progress  of  Error ;  iji—ij2.  On 

an  Ugly  Fellow ;  14J,  The  Task  ;  2g8, 

transl.  Homer 
Cox,  the  Rev.  Sir  G.  W.,  437  n,  448  n  ; 

C-  57^  59^  70,  72-73,  74,  76,  78,  gs, 

101-102,  log,  118,  141,  JJ6-162,  172 
Crabbe,  George,  1754-1832.    Cj(?{4), 

Village,  Parish  Register,  Newspaper, 

Birth  of  Flattery  (Invocations  of  the 

Muse) ;  204,  Village 
Crane,  Oliver.    C.  2gg,  transl.  ^neid 
Creuzer  (croi'tser),  Professor,  and  the 

allegorical  interpretation,  439 
Curtin,    Jeremiah.     C.    118,    i4g-i^4. 

Myths  and  Folk-Lore  of  Ireland 
Curzon  (cUr-zon'),  A.  de  (paint).  C.  loi- 

102,  Psyche 

Dale,  Thos.    C.  2g8,  transl.  Sophocles 
Daniel,    Samuel,    1 562-1619.     C.  2ji- 

244,  Dialogue   of   Ulysses   and   the 

Siren 
Dannecker  (dan'ek-er),  J.  H.von,  1758- 

1841  (sculpt).    C.  176-/81,  Ariadne 


Dante    (dan'te)     Alighieri,    126^-1321 

Reference  to,  14;   C.  16 
Darwin,  Erasmus,  1731-1802.    Extract 

from  his  Botanic  Garden,  180,  247 
Da'sent  Sir  G.  W.,  1820-1896.    C.  268- 

281,  Popular  Tales  from  the  Norse 
David(da-ved'),  J.  L.,  1748-1825  (paint). 

C.  ig§,  Paris  and  Helen 
Dekker,   Thomas,    1570-1641.      C.  jo, 

The  Sun's  Darling 
Derby,  the    Earl    of.    Tran.sl.   Homer, 

21  ;   C.  2g8 
Dippold,  G.  T.    C.  301,  Great  Epics  of 

Mediaeval  Germany 
Dixon,  R.W.,  1833-1901.    C.  jo,  Apollo 

Pythius 
Dobell  (do-bel'),  Sydney,  1824-1874.    C. 

268-281,  Balder 
Dobson,  Austin,  1840 .  Procris,  174, 

175;    extract    from    Prayer    of    the 

Swine  to  Circe,  325,   326;   C.   i2j- 

124,  Procris ;  141,  Polypheme 
Domenichino      (do-ma-ne-ke'no),      Z., 

1581-1641    (paint.).     C.  j2,    Diana's 

Chase;  24^-2^4,  Cumaean  Sibyl 
Dosso  Dossi  (dos'so  dos'se)  (Giovanni 

di  Lutero),  1479-1542  (paint).    C.  g8, 

Diana  and  Endymion  (Dresden) 
Dowden,    E.,    1843 .     C.  59,    Eu- 

ropa ;  118,   Eurydice ;  I4g-ij4,   An- 
dromeda 
Doyle,    Sir   Francis    Hastings,    1810- 

1888.     C.  i82-i8g,    transl.    CEdipus 

Tyrannus 
Drayton,   Michael,    1563-1631.     C.  jo, 

Song  8  (on  Apollo);  j^  (2),  Gany- 
mede 
Drummond,  William,  of  Hawthornden. 

1585-1649.    C.JO,  vSong  to  Phoebus; 

j8  {2),  Ganymede  ;  S0-J2,  "  Nymphs. 

sister  nymphs,"  etc. ;  700,  Statue  of 

Adonis  ;  128,  Summons  to  Love;  7^9- 

/J4,  Statue  of  Medusa 
Dryden,  J.,   1631-1700.    Extract  from 

Alexander's  Feast  45  ;   C.  2g8,  transl. 

Metamorphoses  and  the  ^neis ;  4g. 

Alexander's    Feast;    J4,    Epistle    to 

Congreve  ;  8j-86,  Chaucer's  Wife  of 


586 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Bath's  Tale ;  /j/,  To  Mrs.  Anne  Kil- 

ligrew;  igb,  Cymon  and  Iphigenia ; 

2J^-2J7,  St.  Cecilia's  Day 
Dyer,John,  i70o(.'')-i758.  Extracts  from 

The  Fleece,  230,  231,  314 
Dyer,  Louis,  185 1 .    Studies  of  the 

Gods  in  Greece,  446  n 

Edwards,  Miss  A.  B.    C.  302,  A  Thou- 
sand Miles  up  the  Nile 
Eliot,  George  (Mary  Ann  Cross),  1819- 

1880.    C.  2g8,  Arion 
Elliot,  Lady  Charlotte.    C.  14^-1^4,  Me- 
dusa, 1878 
Ellis,  Robinson.    C.  2gg,  transl.  Catullus 
Ely,  Talfourd.    Olympus,  446  n 
Emerson,    R.   W.,   1803-1882.      C.  18, 
Astrasa ;  i82-i8g,  The  Sphinx 

Fawcett,  Edgar,  1847-1904.    C.  231-244, 

Calypso 
Fawkes,   Francis,    1721-1777.     C.  loy, 

transl.  Sappho 
Fenelon(fa-n'-16n'),Fran9oisdelaMothe, 

1651-1715.    f.  .?j/-^^/,  Telemaque 
Field,  Michael.    Callirrhoe,  1884 
Fields,  A.    C.  gi,  Clytia 
Fiske,  John,  1842-1901.    Citation  from 

Myths  and  Myth-Makers,  432 
FitzGerald,  Edward,  1809-1883.   C.182- 

i8g,    The    Downfall   and    Death    of 

King  Qidipus  ;  ig6,  Agamemnon 
Fitzgerald,     M.    P.     C.    176-181,    The 

Crowned  Hippolytus 
Flaxman,  John,  17 55-1826.    C.  igg,  204, 

207,  231-244,  Sketches 
Fletcher,  John,    1 579-1625   (see  Beau- 

fnotii).   C.38  ( I ),  A  Wife  for  a  Month ; 

42, "  God  Lyaeus  "  (from  Valentinian) ; 

5<?,  "  Hear  ye  ladies  "  (Valentinian) ; 

50-52,  iy6-i8j.  The  Maid's  Tragedy  ; 

g8,  The  Faithful  Shepherdess ;  i2g- 

130,  Song  of  Priest  of  Pan ;  Song  to 

Pan  (Faithful  Shepherdess) ;  ij6-j8i. 

The  Two  Noble  Kinsmen 
Forestier,  Auber  (pseudonym  for  Annie 

A.    Moore).     C.   283,   Echoes   from 

Mist  Land 


Forster,  F.  C.  123-124,  Procris  and 
Cephalus 

Foster- Barham,  A.  G.  C.  283,  transl. 
Nibelungenlied 

Franceschini  (fran-ches-ke'ne),  M.  A., 
1648-1729  (paint).  C.  100,  Birth  of 
Adonis  (Dresden) 

Francklin,  Thomas.  C.  2g8,  transl. 
Sophocles 

Frere  (frer),  J.  Hookham,  1769-1846. 
C.  i4g-i54,  transl.  Simonides'  La- 
ment of  Danae;  j£b-i62,  transl.  Eu- 
ripides' Hercules  Furens 

Frothingham,  N.  L.  C.  114-iij,  transl. 
Schiller's  Festival  of  Eleusis ;  224, 
transl.  Lessing's  Laocoon 

Fuller,  S.  Margaret,  1810-1850.  C.38 
(2),  Ganymede  to  his  Eagle. 

Garnett,  Richard,  1835-1906.  €.57,  lo 
in  Egypt ;  igb,  Iphigenia  in  Delphi 

Garrick,  David,  17 17-1779.  C.  65-66, 
Upon  a  Lady's  Embroidery 

Gay,  John,  1 685-1 732.  C.  141,  Poly- 
pheme's  Song  (Acis  and  Galatea) 

Gayley,  C.  M.  Extracts  from  transla- 
tion of  Schiller's  Gods  of  Greece, 
182 ;  from  hexameter  translation  of 
Catullus'  Peleus  and  Thetis,  253-258, 
269-273 

Gerard  (zha-rar'),  Fran9ois,  1 770-1837 
(paint.).  C.  101-102,  Cupid  and 
Psyche 

Giordano  (jor-da'no),  Luca,  1632-1705 
(paint.).  C.  I4g-i54,  Perseus  and 
Phineus ;  156-162,  Hercules  and 
Omphale ;  176-181,  Bacchantes  and 
Ariadne  (Dresden) 

Giorgione  (j6r-j6'na)  (Giorgio  Barba- 
relli),  1477-151 1  (paint.).  C.  131, 
Nymphs  and  Satyr;  795,  The  Judg- 
ment of  Paris  (Dresden) 

Gladstone,  W.  E.,  1809-1898.  Transla- 
tion from  Iliad,  285.  Works  referred 
to  or  cited,  440  n  ;  his  theory  of  myths, 
440  ;  C.  23,  on  the  number  of  the 
Olympians,  and  on  the  Olympian  re- 
ligion ;  77,  on  the  Chryseis  incident 


INDEX  OF  MODERN  AUTHORS  AND  ARTISTS       587 


Gleyre  (gler),  Charles  G.,  1807-1874 
(paint.).  C.  42,  Dance  of  the  Bac- 
chantes ;  1J6-162,  Hercules  at  the 
feet  of  Omphale 

Goethe  (ge'te),  J.  W.  von,  1749-1832. 
C.  ig6,  Iphigenia  in  Tauris  ;  see  also 
under  Boivring  and  Alariin 

Goldsmith,  Oliver,  1 728-1774.  C.  ij2~ 
ijj,  on  a  beautiful  youth  struck  by 
blindness  (Narcissus) 

Gosse,  E.  W.,  1849 •  Quoted:  Eros, 

36;  from  the  Sons  of  Cydippe,  81  ; 
from  the  Praise  of  Dionysus,  156, 
157  ;  C.  22,  Greece  and  England;  j.?. 
The  Praise  of  Artemis ;  64,  Sons  of 
Cydippe;  //<?,  The  Waking  of  Euryd- 
ice ;  12^,  Alcyone  (a  sonnet  in  dia- 
logue) ;  ij6~i62.  Gifts  of  the  Muses ; 
2^5-237,  Island  of  the  Blest 

Gray,  Thomas,  1716-1771.  The  Fatal 
Sisters  referred  to,  376 ;  C.  4,  j(5,  j8 
(4),  40,  Progress  of  Poesy;  14Q-1J4, 
Hymn  to  Adversity ;  268-281,  Ode 
on  the  Descent  of  Odin,  Ode  on  the 
Fatal  Sisters 

Greene,  Robert,  1 560-1 592.  Cj6,  Ar- 
raignment of  Paris 

Greenwell,  Dora,  1821-1882.  C.  114- 
117,  Demeter  and  Cora  ;  282,  Battle- 
Flag  of  Sigurd 

Grimm,  Jakob  Ludwig,  1 785-1863,  and 
Wilhelm  Karl,  1786-1859.  Theory 
of  distribution  of  myth,  448;  deriva- 
tion of  word  Edda,  458  n  ;  C.  loi- 
102,  The  Twelve  Brothers ;  jo/, 
Deutsche  Mythologie 

Guercino  (gwer-che'no),  Francesco, 
1 590-1666  (paint).  C.  g8.  Sleeping 
Endymion  ;  too,  Three  Pictures  of 
Adonis  (Dresden)  ;  12J-124,  Aurora 

Guerin  (ga-ran'),  Pierre  Narcisse,  1774- 
1833  (paint.).  C.  12J-124,  L'Aurore 
et  Cephale  ;  24^—2^4,  ^Eneas  at  the 
Court  of  Dido 

Hahn  (han),  Werner.  Modern  German 
edition  of  Nibelungenlied,  407,  460  w, 
461  «  ;   C.  28 J 


Hake,  Thomas  Gordon,  1809-1895.    C. 

J4,  The  Birth  of  Venus ;  140-1^4,  The 

Infant  Medusa 
Hallam,  Arthur  Henry,  181I-1833.    C. 

10^,  Pygmalion 
Hamon    (a-mon'),    J.    L.,      1821-1874 

(paint.).    C.  123-124,  Aurora 
Haug  (houch),  M.    C.  J04,  Sacred  Lan- 
guage and  Literature  of  the  Parsis 
Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,    1 804-1 864.    C. 

J4,  ijT,  The  Marble  Faun 
Head,  Guy,  d.  1801  (paint.).  C.j8  (12), 

Iris 
Hem'ans,  Felicia  D.,  1793-1835.    C.8j, 

Alfieri's  Alcestis,  Death  Song  of  Al- 

cestis  ;  97,  Pleiads  ;  176-181,  Shade 

of  Theseus 
Herrick,  R.,  1 591-1674.    C.j5(i),The 

Cheat   of   Cupid,  or   The    Ungentle 

Guest 
Hervey,    Thomas    Kibble,    1 799-1859. 

Poem  on  Cupid  and  Psyche,  136,  137 
Hoffmann  (hof'man),  J.  (paint.).   C.  28J, 

Illustrations  of  the  Ring  of  the  Nibe- 

lungen 
Holmes,  O.  W.,  1809-1894.    C.  g8,  2ji- 

244,  Metrical  Essays 
Hood,  Thomas,  1798-1845.    C.  jo,  To 

the    Sun ;   j2.    To    the    Moon ;    9/, 

Flowers ;    /04,   Hero  and   Leander  ; 

7/4-1/7,  Ode  to   Melancholy;   2j/- 

244,  Lycus  the  Centaur 
Horn,   F.  W.   Geschichte  d.  Literatur 

d.  Skandinavischen  Nordens,  458  n, 

460  n 
Home,  Richard  Henry  (Hengist),  1803- 

1884.   C.  /o-/i,  Prometheus,  the  Fire- 

bringer;  96,  Orion 
Hiibner  (hiip'ner),  E.,  1842 (paint). 

C.  /g6,  Iphigenia 
Hunt,  Leigh,  1784-1859.    C.  /04,  Hero 

and  Leander 

Ingelow,  Jean,  1820-1897.  C.  48,  Per- 
sephone 

Ingres  (an'gr'),  J.  A.  D.,  1780-1867 
(paint).  C.  /82-/8g,  CEdipus  and  the 
Sphinx 


588 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Jackson,  Helen  Hunt,  1831-1885.  C. 
40,  Demeter;  iy6-i8i,  Ariadne's 
Farewell 

Jameson,  Frederick.  Translation  of 
Wagner's  Ring  of  the  Nibelung,4i  i- 
430 ;   C.  284-288 

Jebb,  R.  C,  1841-1905.  C.  228-230, 
articles  on  Troy 

Johnson,  Biorn,  of  Scardsa,  157  5-1 656. 
On  the  Elder  Edda,  459 

Johnson,  Francis,  d.  1876.  C.  J04,  Ori- 
ental Religions 

Johnson,  Samuel,  1 709-1 784.  Defini- 
tion of  Fable,  i 

Johnsson  (yons'sun),  Arngrim,  1568- 
1648.  On  the  authorship  of  the 
Younger  Edda,  459 

Johnston,  T.  C.  Did  the  Phoenicians 
discover  America  ?    449  n 

Jones,  Sir  William,  1 746-1 794.  C.  joj, 
transl.  Sakuntala 

Jonson,  B.,  1 574-1637.  Hymn  to  Cyn- 
thia, 31  ;  C.  4,  Neptune's  Triumph; 
i2g-ijo,  Pan's  Anniversary ;  42, 
Dedication  of  the  King's  new  cellar 
to  Bacchus 

Jonsson  (yons'sun),  Thorleif.  C.  268- 
281,  edition  of  the  Younger  Edda 

Jordaens  (yor'dans),  Jakob,  1 593-1678 
(paint.).  C.  110-112,  Silenus  and  Bac- 
chante ;  176-181,  Ariadne,  Fauns,  etc. 
(Dresden) 

Jordan  (yor'dan),  W.  C.  283,  Studies 
and  Recitations  of  the  Nibelunge 

Kaulbach  (koul'bach),  W.,  1805-1S74 
(paint).    C.  ig6,  Iphigenia 

Keats,  John,  1 795-1 821.  Quotation  from 
"  I  stood  tiptoe  upon  a  little  hill,"  67  ; 
from  Endymion,  Bk.  3,  125,  200,  201  ; 
Ode  to  Psyche,  137-139;  Picture  of 
Leander,  145  ;  Sonnet  on  Chapman's 
Homer,  283  ;  C.  4,^4,  Hyperion  ;  jo, 
Hymn  to  Apollo ;  J2,  iji,  To  Psyche ; 
j8  (4),  On  a  Grecian  Urn ;  42,  iji, 
755,  To  a  Nightingale ;  48,  Melan- 
choly ;  7J-,  9J,  g8,  142,  231-244,  En- 
dymion ;  log,  Ode  to  Maia 


Keller,    F.,    1842 (paint).    C.  104, 

Hero  and  Leander 

King,  Ed.  C.  2gg,  transl.  Metamor- 
phoses 

Kingsley,  Charles,  1819-1875.  Extract 
from  the  Andromeda,  212;  C.  107, 
Sappho ;  282,  Longbeard's  Saga 

Knight  Payne,  1750-1824.  Symbolical 
Language  of  Ancient  Art,  444  n 

Kray  (kri),  W.  (paint.).  C.  101-102, 
Psyche  and  Zephyr 

Kiirenberg,  von  (fon  kii'ren-bero),  and 
the  Nibelungenlied,  461 

Kyd  (kid),  Thomas,  end  of  the  sixteenth 
century.    C.  47,  61,  Spanish  Tragedy 

Lachmann  (lach'man),  K.  K.,  1793- 
1851.  Theory  of  Nibelungenlied,  461  : 
C.  283,  Nibelunge  Not 

La  Fontaine  (lafon-ten'),  Jean  de,  162 1- 
1695.   Mentioned,  2 

Landor,  W.  S.,  1775-1864.  Quotations 
from  the  Niobe,  102,  103 ;  Hippom- 
enes  and  Atalanta,  140,  141  ;  from 
Orpheus  and  Eurydice  (Dry  Sticks), 
167,  168;  C.  26,  Hymn  of  Terpander 
to  Juno  ;  42,  Sophron's  Hymn  to  Bac- 
chus ;  50-5.?,  176-181,  To  Joseph  Ab- 
lett;  J9,  Europa  and  her  Mother;  76, 
123-124,  Gebir ;  78,  Niobe  ;  83,  Her- 
cules, Pluto,  Alcestis,  etc. ;  107,  Sap- 
pho, Alcasus,  etc. ;  110-112,  Last 
Fruit  of  an  Old  Tree ;  113,  Silenus ; 
128,  Sonnet  on  Genius ;  i2g-i3o. 
Pan  and  Pitys,  Cupid  and  Pan ;  137, 
Dryope  ;  138,  The  Hamadryad,  Aeon 
and  Rhodope ;  170-17 1,  Loss  of 
Memory ;  176-181,  Theseus  and  Hip- 
polyta;  igj,  Menelaus  and  Helen; 
jg6,  Iphigenia  and  Agamemnon; 
igg,  Peleus  and  Thetis ;  2ig-220,  The 
Espousals  of  Polyxena ;  221,  Cory- 
thos.  Death  of  Paris  and  Oinone;  228- 
230,  Death  of  Clytemnestra ;  231- 
244,  The  Last  of  Ulysses,  Penelope 

Lang,    Andrew,    1844 •     Quotation 

from  The  Fortunate  Isles,  52 ;  from 
The  New  Pygmalion,  145,  146,  147; 


INDEX  OF  MODERN  AUTHORS  AND  ARTISTS       589 


Sonnet  on  the  Odyssey,  318  ;  A  Song 
of  Phaeacia,  335,  336;  transl.  from 
Moschus,  68-70,  189 ;  transls.  from 
Iliad  (w.  Leaf  and  Myers),  and 
from  Odyssey  (w.  Butcher),  see  be- 
low; from  Bion,  126-128;  from 
Theocritus,  198-200,  222,  223,  224; 
Myth,  Ritual,  and  Religion,  and  arti- 
cle on  Mythology  in  Encyc.  Brit., 
cited  or  referred  to  :  Preface,  438  n, 
440  «,  441  «,  447  n,  448,  449,  and  C. 
5, 30,  J2,  j(?,  60,  61,  7^,  8g,  110-112, 
114-117.  Transls.  of  Theocritus, 
Bion,  and  Moschus  referred  to :  C. 
j8  (i),  110-112,  1^6-162,  igj,  2gS. 
Poems  referred  to :  C.  j2,  To  Arte- 
mis ;  jo-j-?,  Sirens  ;  igj,  221,  Helen 
of  Troy ;  795,  Sonnet  on  Iliad 

Lang,  Andrew  (Leaf  and  Myers).  Transl. 
Iliad,  84-87,  104,  291,  292 ;   C.  2g8 

Lang,  Andrew  (Butcher  and).  Transl. 
Odyssey,  35, 327, 328 ;  C.  2ji-244,2g8 

Lamed,  Augusta.  C.  268-281,  Tales 
from  the  Norse  Grandmother 

Lathrop,  G.  P.,  1851-1898.  C.  ig£, 
Helen  at  the  Loom 

Lawton,  W.  C.  C.  i6j-i6'^,  transl. 
Euripides 

Lazarus,  Emma,  1849-1887.  C.  81,  Ad- 
metus 

Lee-Hamilton,    E.,    1845 •     C-  ^7^ 

Apollo  and  Marsyas ;  i^g-ij;^.  The 
New  Medusa 

Lefebvre  (le-fev'r'),  Jules  (paint.).  C. 
j2,  Diana  and  her  Nymphs 

Leighton,  Frederick,  Lord,  1830-1896 
(paint.).  C.  48,  The  Garden  of  Pros- 
erpine ;  8j,  Hercules  wrestling  with 
Death  for  the  Body  of  Alcestis  ;  10/- 
J02,  The  Bath  of  Psyche  ;  114-117, 
The  Return  of  Proserpine ;  118,  Or- 
pheus and  Eurydice ;  i4g-i£4,  Per- 
seus and  Andromeda ;  igs,  Helen 
of  Troy 

Lessing,  Gotthold  F..,  17 29-1 781  C. 
6g,  224,  Laocoon 

Lettsom,  W.  N.,  The  Fall  of  the  Nibe- 
Ivingers,  407-409 ;  C.  28J 


Linton,  William  James,  1812-1897.  C. 
ij8,  Eurydice ;  ig6,  Iphigenia  at 
Aulis 

Lo'beck,  Chr.  A.,  1 781-1860.  Aglao- 
phamus,  442  n  ;   C.  114-iij 

Lodge,  G.  C.,  1873-1909.  Herakles, 
12;   C.  io-i£,  1^6-162 

Lodge,  Thomas,  i  558-1625.  C.  38  (2), 
Sonnet  to  Phyllis 

Longfellow,  H.  W.,  1807-1882.  Quoted 
or  referred  to:  Prometheus,  13-15; 
Drinking  Song,  153;  C.  io-i§. 
Masque  of  Pandora,  Prometheus,  and 
Epimetheus ;  gb,  2_££-2jj,  Occulta- 
tion  of  Orion ;  g8,  Endymion ;  /jj, 
Pegasus  in  Pound ;  2jj-2j'/,  Verses 
to  a  Child  ;  268-281,  Tegner's  Drapa, 
Saga  of  King  Olaf 

Lonsdale,  J.,  and  Lee,  S.  C.  2gg,  transl. 
Virgil 

Lorrain  (l6-ran'),  Claude  (Gelee),  1600- 
1682  (paint.).  C.  j6.  Mercury  and 
Battus ;  jg,  Europa ;  141,  Evening, 
Acis,  and  Galatea 

Lowell,  J.  R.,  1819-1891.  Quotations 
from  The  Shepherd  of  King  Adme- 
tus,  105,  106;  from  Fable  for  Critics 
(Daphne),  114;  from  Rhoecus,  193. 
194;  C.  lo-iSi  58,  Prometheus  ;  j6, 
Finding  of  the  Lyre;  38  (2),  (6), 
Hebe,  Villa  Franca ;  44-46,  to  the 
Past ;  J'o-j'2,  The  Sirens ;  g8,  En- 
dymion ;  118,  Eurydice 

Ludlow,  J.  M.  C.  JOT,  Popular  Epics 
of  the  Middle  Ages 

Lii'ning.    Die  Edda,  458;; 

Lydgate,  John,  i37o(?)-i45i(?).  C.  ig6, 
The  Troy  Book 

Lyly  (Hll),  John,  i  553-1606.  C.  j8  (l), 
Cupid  and  Campaspe  ;  8g,  iij.  King 
Midas  ;  g8,  Endymion  ;  loj,  Sappho 
and  Phao 

Lytton,  Edward  G.  E.  L.  Bulwer,  Lord, 
1803-1873.  C.  j8  (2),  Ganymede; 
64,  Cydippe,  or  the  Apples ;  226, 
transl.  Schiller's  Cassandra ;  ^55- 
2S7,  Death  and  Sisyphus ;  2gg,  transL 
Horace 


590 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Mabie,  H.  W.  C.  268-281,  Norse 
Stories 

Macaulay,  T.  B.,  1800-1859.  Quotation 
from  Prophecy  of  Capys,  61  ;  from 
Lake  Regillus,  243-245 

Maffei  (maf-fa'e),  F.  S.  di,  1675-1755. 
C.  i6g,  Merope 

Magnusson  (mag'noos-son),  Arne.  Deri- 
vation of  word  Edda,  459  « 

Magnusson  (mag'noos-son),  Eirikr  (and 
William  Morris).  Story  of  the  Vol- 
sungs  and  Nibelungs,  460  n ;  C. 
282 

Mannhardt(man'hart),W.  AntikeWald- 
und  Feldkulte,  440  ?i ;   C.  100 

Marchal,  C.  F.,  1828-1878.  C.  231-244, 
Penelope 

Marlowe,  Christopher,  1 564-1 593.  Ex- 
tract from  Hero  and  Leander,  142- 
144;  from  Faustus,  287,  288;  C.  24^- 
2£4,  Tragedy  of  Dido,  Queen  of 
Carthage 

Marston,  J.,  1575  (?)-i634.  C.  103,  Pyg- 
malion 

Martin,  Sir  Theodore,  1816-1898.  C.36, 
Goethe's  Phoebus  and  Hermes ;  38 
(i),  163-167, 176-181,  igg,  2gg,  transl. 
Catullus ;  2gg,  transl.  Horace 

Marvell,  Andrew,  1 621 -1678.  C.  g8. 
Lord  Fauconberg,  Lady  Mary  Crom- 
well 

Maxwell.    C.  4g,  Tom  May's  Death 

Mengs  (menks),  Anton  Raphael,  1728- 
1779  (paint.).  C.j5(i),  Cupid;j<?(4), 
Apollo  and  Muses 

Meredith,  George,  1828-1909.  C.  j6, 
Phaeton;  114-iiy,  The  Appeasement 
of  Demeter 

Merivale,  J.  H.,  1 779-1844  (and  R. 
Bland).  C.  2g8,  transl.  Greek  An- 
thology 

Mi-chel-an'ge-lo  Buonarroti,  147  5-1 564 
(sculpt,  and  paint.).  Three  Fates, 
38 ;  Cumaean  Sibyl,  353 ;  C.  30, 
Apollo;  38  (6),  The  Fates;  42, 
Drunken  Bacchus  ;  4g,  A  Fury ;  100, 
Dying  Adonis  ;  131,  Mask  of  a  Satyr; 
245-254^  Sibyls 


Mickle,  William  Julius,  1735-1788.  C. 
106,  transl.  of  Camoens'  Lusiad 

Millais  (mi-la').  Sir  John  Everett,  1829- 
1896  (paint.).    C.  i3g,  Pomona 

Millet  (me-le'),  Jean  Francois,  1814- 
1875  (paint.).  C.  30,  Phoebus  and 
Boreas 

Milman,  Henry  Hart,  1791-1868.  Lines 
from  the  Samor,  213;  C.  76,  Samor; 
110-112,  Bacchanals  of  Euripides ; 
ig6,  Agamemnon  of  ^schylus ;  2g8, 
transl.  Euripides 

Milton,  John,  1608-1674.  Reference 
to,  14.  Quoted :  lines  from  II  Pen- 
seroso,  211,  451 ;  from  the  Hymn  on 
the  Nativity,  181  ;  from  Comus,  40, 
204,  205,  213,  314;  from  Paradise 
Lost,  226 ;  C.  16,  4-2£j  passim,  ref- 
erences to  Paradise  Lost,  Paradise 
Regained,  Lycidas,  Comus,  II  Pense- 
roso,  L'Allegro,  Sonnets,  Arcades, 
Vacation  Excursion,  Hymn  on  the 
Nativity,  Samson  Agonistes 

Mogk,  E.  Article  Mythologie  in  Paul's 
Grundriss  d.  Germ.  PhiloL,  446  n, 
460  n 

Molinari  (mo-le-na're),  Antonio,  1665- 
1727  (paint.).  C.  101-102,  Psyche  and 
Sleeping  Cupid  (Dresden) 

Moore,  Thomas,  1779-1852.  Quoted: 
Song  of  Hyperborean,  43 ;  Clytie, 
117;  C.38  (2),  Fall  of  Hebe;  -jS, 
Sir  R.  Blackmore ;  80,  Lycus  the 
Centaur;  9j;  101-102,  Cupid  and 
Psyche ;  103,  Rhymes  on  the  Road ; 
104,  Hero  and  Leander;  106,  The 
Sylph's  Ball ;  123-124,  Legendary 
Ballads  ;  1^6-162,  Hylas  ;  304,  The 
Fire-Worshipers 

Morley,  H.,  1822-1894.  C.  300,  extract 
(on  Runes)  from  English  Writers 

Morris,  Sir  Lewis,  1 833-1 907.  The  Epic 
of  Hades,  C.  22,  24-2^  (Zeus),  26 
(Here),  2j  (Athene),  jo  (Apollo),  j^ 
(Artemis),  34  (Aphrodite),  47,  4g 
(Hades),  48  (Persephone),  61  (Sisy- 
phus), 7'5,//5  (Tantalus),  ^7  (Marsyas), 
9/   (Actaeon),    g8   (Endymion),   100 


INDEX  OF  MODERN  AUTHORS  AND  ARTISTS 


591 


(Adonis),  101-102  (Psyche),  //<?  (Or- 
pheus, Eurydice),  ij2-ijj  (Narcis- 
sus), i4g-iJ4  (Medusa,  Andromeda), 
i^b-162  (Dejaneira),  lyb-iSi  (Phae- 
dra), ^^^  (Laocoon),^^5-^jo(Clytem- 
nestra) ;  y8,  Niobe  on  Sipylus 

Morris,  WilHam,  1834-1896.  Extracts 
from  The  Earthly  Paradise,  Story  of 
Cupid  and  Psyche,  131,  135;  Pyg- 
mahon  and  the  Image,  146,  147 ; 
Doom  of  King  Acrisius,  209,  210; 
Life  and  Death  of  Jason,  232,  233 ; 
Sigurd  the  Volsung,  398-404;  C. 
So-32,  118,  16J-167,  Life  and  Death 
of  Jason ;  64,  Earthly  Paradise ;  8j, 
The  Love  of  Alcestis  ;  joj,  Atalanta's 
Race  ;  14Q-1J4,  The  Doom  of  Acris- 
ius; /jj,  Bellerophon;  /j^-/^^.  The 
Golden  Apples  ;  221,  Death  of  Paris ; 
2J1-244,  transl.  Odyssey ;  268-281, 
The  Funeral  of  Balder ;  282,  Sigurd 
the  Volsung ;  2gg,  transl.  the  ^neids 

Morris,  WiUiam,  and  E.  Magnusson 
(mag'noos-son).  The  Story  of  the 
Volsungs  and  Nibelungs,  460  n ;  C. 
282 

Morshead,  E.  A.  A.  C.  ig6,  2g8,  transl. 
^schylus 

Motherwell,  W.,  1 797-1835.  C.  282, 
Battle-Flag  of  Sigurd;  Jarl  Egill 
Skallagrim ;  Sword  Chant  of  Thor- 
stein 

Muir  (mur),  J.  C.  joj,  Sanskrit  Texts; 
Principal  Deities  of  the  Rig-Veda 

Miiller  (miil'er),  F.  Max,  1823-1900. 
Cited,  434,  437,  438,  448  n  ;  Oxford 
Essays,  etc.,  referred  to,  446  ?i ;  Pre- 
face and  C.joj,  Sacred  Books  of  the 
East,  History  Sanskrit  Literature, 
Science  of  Religion,  Chips  from  a 
German  Workshop,  etc. ;  C.  ig-20, 
24-2^,  ^7, 36,  S7,  j8,  78,  81,  8g,  Jog, 
118, 126-127,  i4g-i§4,  ijj,  references 
to  works  in  general 

Miiller  (miil'er),  H.  D.  C.  £g,  theory 
about  Demeter 

Murray,  A.  S.  Manual  of  Mythology, 
referred  to,  Preface  and  150 


Myers,  E.,  1844 .  C.  lo-ij.  Judg- 
ment of  Prometheus  ;  795,  Sonnet  on 
the  Iliad ;  2g8  (w.  Lang  and  Leaf), 
transl.  IHad ;  transl.  Odes  of  Pindar 

My  Her,  C.  H.  C.  283,  edition  of  Nibe- 
lungenlied 

Neaves,  Charles,  Lord,  1800-1876.  C. 
2g8,  transl.  Greek  Anthology 

Neide  (nl'de),  E.,  1842 (paint.).    C. 

1 01-102,  Charon  and  Psyche 

No'el,  Hon.   Roden,   1834 .    C.  38 

(2),  Ganymede  ;  42,  Triumph  of  Bac- 
chus ;  i2g-i3o.  Pan  (in  the  Modern 
Faust) ;  268-281,  Ragnarok  (Modern 
Faust) 

Occleve,  Thomas,  1370-1454.    €.38(1), 

The  Letter  of  Cupid 
Olafsson    (o'lafs-sun),    Magnus,    1574- 

1636.    Edition  of  Snorri's  Edda,  459 

Paley,  F.  A.,  1816-1888.  C.  2g8,  transl. 
Pindar's  Odes 

Palgrave,  F.  T.,  1824-1897.  C.  83,  Al- 
cestis 

Palmer,  G.  II.,  1842 .    C.  231-244, 

2g8,  transl.  Odyssey 

Parmigiano  (par-me-ja'no)  (Francesco 
Mazzuoli),  1 504-1 540  (paint.).  C.  38 
(2),  The  Rape  of  Ganymede  (Dres- 
den) 

Parnell,  Thomas,  1679-17 18.  C.  /o-//, 
Hesiod,  or  the  Rise  of  Woman ;  42, 
Bacchus 

Pater,  Walter  H.,  1839- 1894.  Extract 
from  Marius  the  Epicurean,  133  ;  the 
story  of  Cupid  and  Psyche,  157,  457 
«  ;  C.  40,  Myth  of  Demeter ;  101-102, 
2gg,  Marius  the  Epicurean 

Patmore,  Coventry,  1823-1896.  C.  38 
(i).  The  Unknown  Eros 

Paul  (poul),  Hermann.  Grundriss  d. 
Germ.  PhiloL,  referred  to,  446«,  460^ 

Paupion  (p6-pi-6n'),  E-  J-  (paint.).  C. 
106,  Thisbe 

Peacock,  Thomas  Love,  1785-1866.  C. 
110-112,  Vengeance  of  Bacchus 


592 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


I'eele,  George,  1 558-1 598.  C.  ^^4,  igj;, 
Arraignment  of  Paris 

Petiscus,  A.  H.  The  Gods  of  Olympus, 
446  n 

Phillips,  Ambrose,  1 671-1749.  C.  107, 
transl.  Sappho ;  ijg,  Cider 

Phillips,   Stephen,    1868 .     Extract 

from  Marpessa,  115,  116;  from  Ulys- 
ses, 338  ;  C.  2J1-244,  Ulysses 

Pisano  (pe-za'no),  Andrea,  1270-1349 
(paint.).    C.  /7j,  Daedalus  and  Icarus 

Pix'is,   Th.,   1831 (paint.).     C.  283, 

Illustrations  of  the  Ring  of  the  Nibe- 
lungen 

Plump'tre,  E.  H.,  1821-1891.  Transl. 
Sophocles,  262-264,  267, 268  ;  C.  ij6~ 
162,  i82-i8g,  igd,  204,  2ig-22o,  228- 
2JO,  2gS,  transl.  .^schylus  and  Sopho- 
cles 

Pope,  Alexander,  1 688-1 744.  Transl. 
Homer,  286-288,  292,  293,  306,  C. 
231-244,  2g8 ;  transl.  Statins'  The- 
baid,  2gg ;  references  to  Dunciad,  the 
Messiah,  Rape  of  the  Lock,  Wind- 
sor Forest,  Essay  on  Criticism,  Pro- 
logue to  Satires,  Spring,  Summer, 
Moral  Essays,  Miscellaneous,  8,  18, 
22,  JO,  34,38  (I),  40,  44-46,  4g,  jo- 
S2,  S4,  jy,  6s-66,  78,  97,  100,  107, 
113, 118,  I2S,  i2g-i3o,  131,  iss,  is6- 
162,  163-167,  172,  231-244,  2SS-2S7, 
260 

Potter,  R.,  1721-1804.  C.  2g8,  transl. 
^schylus  and  Euripides 

Poussin  (poo-san'),  Nicolas,  1 594-1665 
(paint.).  C.  S4,  The  Kingdom  of 
P'lora;  57,  Pan  and  Syrinx  (Dres- 
den) ;  132-133,  Narcissus 

Poynter,   Sir  E.  J.,    1836 (paint). 

C.  103,  Atalanta's  Race.  Note  also  his 
Andromeda,  Perseus,  and  Androm- 
eda and  Helen 

Praed  (prad),  Winthrop  Mackworth, 
1802-1839.    C.  226,  Cassandra 

Preller  (prel'er),  L.,  1809-1861.  Grie- 
chische  Mythologie,  cited  or  referred 
to,  Preface  and  4  n,  6  ;/,  446  n ;  C. 
8,  27,  30,  32,  34,  57,  J9,  60,  61,  70, 


72-73^  7S,  gs^  los,  110-112,  1/4-117, 

123-124,  126-127,  i4g-i^4,  172 
Preston,  Margaret  J.,  1825-1897.    C.  g3. 

Flight    of  Arethusa ;  12^,   Alcyone ; 

168,  The  Quenched  Branch 
Prior,   Matthew,    1 664-1 721.    C.  ^0-^2, 

On  taking   of   Namur;    76,   Female 

Phaeton 
Procter,  Bryan  Waller,  1 787-1874.    C. 

4,  Fall  of  Saturn ;  ig-20.  The  Flood 

of   Thessaly ;    32,  The   Worship   of 

Dian ;  iio-i  12,  Bacchanalian  Song  ; 

J14-117,   Rape  of  Proserpine;  141, 

Death    of   Acis ;    176-181,    On   the 

Statue  of  Theseus 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  1 552-1618.  Cita- 
tion from  History  of  the  World,  440 

Randolph,  Thomas,  1 605-1 634.  C.  42, 
^4,  To  Master  Anthony  Stafford 

Raphael  (raf'a-el)  (Sanzio,  of  Urbino), 
1483-1520  (paint).  C.  28,  Mars;  30, 
Apollo  ;  32,  Luna ;  36,  Mercury ;  38, 
Cupids,  Six  Hours  of  Day  and  Night ; 
87,  Marsyas ;  101-102,  Cupid  and 
Psyche ;  141,  Triumph  of  Galatea ; 
ig£.  Sketch  of  Homer ;  24^-2^4,  Vir- 
gil, Dido 

Read,  T.  B.,  1822-1872.  C.  g8,  En- 
dymion 

Reed,  E.  A.    C.  303,  Hindu  Literature 

Regnault  (re-nyo'),  J.  B.,  1754-1829 
(paint).  C.  38  (3),  The  Graces. 
Note  also  his  Education  of  Achilles, 
Pygmalion  and  Venus,  Death  of 
Priam,  and  Orestes  and  Iphigenia 

Reinach  (ri'nach),  Salomon,  1858 . 

C.  78,  Apollo 

Rembrandt  (rem'brant)  van  Ryn,  1606- 
1669  (paint.).  C.  38  (2),  Ganymede 
carried  off  by  Jove's  Eagle  (Dresden) 

Reni,  Guido  (gwe'do  ra'ne)  1 575-1642 
(paint).  C. 38  (i),  Cupid;  103,  Ata- 
lanta's Race ;  123—124,  Aurora 

Rhys  (res),  John.  Article  in  the  Acad- 
emy, 458  « 

Richardson,  F.  C.  303,  Iliad  of  the 
East 


INDEX  OF  MODERN  AUTHORS  AND  ARTISTS 


593 


Richardson,  L.  J.  C.  64,  Biton  and 
Cleobis 

Riviere     (re-vyer'),    Briton,     1840 

(paint.).  C.  2J1-244,  Circe  and  the 
Companions  of  Ulysses.  Note  also 
his  Argus  and  Actason 

Robinson,  A.  Mary  F.  (Madame  James 

Darmesteter),    1857 .     C.  jo,    A 

Search  for  Apollo,  In  Apollo's  Gar- 
den; Jj6-i8i,  The  Crowned  Hip- 
polytus 

Rogers,  Randolph,  1825-1892  (sculpt.). 
C.  97,  The  Lost  Pleiad 

Rogers,    Robert    Cameron,    1862 . 

Poems:  C.44,  Charon ;j'.j?,  The  Danc- 
ing Faun  ;  141,  Blind  Polyphemus  ; 
i^g,  Hylas ;  2JI-244,  Odysseus  at  the 
Mast,  the  Death  of  Argus 

Rogers,  Samuel,  1763-1855.  C.  j8  [2,), 
Inscription  for  a  Temple  dedicated 
to  the  Graces ;  1^6-162,  On  the  Torso 
of  Hercules 

Rohde  (ro'de),  E.    Psyche,  446  n 

Romano  (ro-ma'no),  Giulio  Pippi,  1492- 
1546  (paint.).  C. j<?(4).  Muses;  J2g- 
jjo,  Pan  and  the  Young  Olympos 
(Dresden) 

Roscher  (r6sh'er),\V.  H.  Ausfiihrliches 
Lexikon  d.  griech.  u.  rom.  Mytholo- 
gie,  referred  to  or  cited,  7  «,  75/^,93  fi, 
ifl"]  n  ;  see  Preface,  and  C.  26,  2y,  28, 
^9.  30,  J^,  34^  J^'  J9.  ^00,  log,  142, 
148,  i4g-iS4^  155^  163-167 

Ross,  R.  S.  C.  176-181,  Ariadne  in 
Naxos,  London,  1882 

Rossetti  (ro-set'e),  D.  G.,  1828-1882. 
C.  4,  Mnemosyne ;  lo-i^.  Pandora  ; 
J2,  Diana ;  34,  jj,  Venus  Victrix, 
Venus  Verticordia ;  48,  Proserpina  ; 
SO-52,  A  Sea-Spell,  The  Siren;  104, 
Hero's  Lamp  ;  i4g-ij4,  Aspecta  Me- 
dusa ;  j82-i8g.  The  Sphinx  (a  paint- 
ing) ;  igj,  Helen ;  226,  Cassandra 
(drawing  and  poem) ;  231-244,  Penel- 
ope, The  Wine  of  Circe  (for  paint- 
ing by  E.  Burne-Jones) 

Roy,  Protap  Chundra.  C.  303,  transl. 
Mahabharata 


Rubens  (rob'benz),  Peter  Paul,  1577- 
1640  (paint.).  C.  32,  Diana  and  her 
Nymphs  ;  131,  Satyrs  ;  i4g-i£4,  Per- 
seus and  Andromeda ;  IJ6-162,  Her- 
cules intoxicated  ;  168,  Meleager  and 
Atalanta  (Dresden) ;  795,  Judgment 
of  Paris 

Ruskin,  J.,  1819-1900.  The  Queen  of 
the  Air,  435,  444,  445  ;   C.  27 

Saemund  (sa'moond)   the   Wise,   1055- 

1133.   His  connection  with  the  Elder 

Edda,  459 
Sandys  (sandz),  George,  1 577-1644.   C. 

2gg,  transl.  Metamorphoses 
Saxe,   J.   G.,    1816-1887.      C.  38   (i). 

Death  and  Cupid  ;  76,  Phaeton  ;  113, 

Choice  of  King  Midas ;  ij8,  Orpheus ; 

173,  Icarus ;  231-244,  The  Spell  of 

Circe 
Scheffer      (shef'er),     Ary,      1795-185S 

(paint).    C.j5  (2),  Hebe 
Schiavoni  (skya-vo'ne),  N.,  1 777-1858 

(paint).    C.  j5(2),  Hebe 
Schiller  (shil'er),  J.  C.  F.  von,   1759- 

1805.    Extract    from    his    Gods    of 

Greece,  transl.  by  C.  M.  Gayley,  182; 

from  Ideal  and  Life,  transl.  by  S.  G. 

Bulfinch,  227,  228.    See  under  Bou>- 

rhig,  Lyttoti,  S.  G.  Bulfinch,  Frothing- 

ham.  Brooks 
Schliemann  (shle'man),  H.,  1822-1890. 

C.  228-230,  Troy  and  its   Remains, 

Ilios,  Troja 
Schnorr  von  Carolsfeld  (shnor  fon  ka'- 

rols-felt),  Julius,  1 794-1872.     C.  283, 

The  Nibelungen  Frescoes 
Schobelt      (sho'belt),     P.,     1838  

(paint.).    C.   48,    114-117,    Rape    of 

Proserpine 
Schiitzenberger    (shiitz'en-ber'ger),   L. 

F.,    1825 (paint).     C.    38    (4), 

Terpsichore 
Scott,  Sir  Walter,  1771-1832.     C.  243- 

234,  Marmion  (Palinurus) 
Scott  William  Bell,  1811-1890.  C.  118, 

Eurydice  ;    182-1 8g,    The    Sphinx; 

jgb,  Iphigenia  at  Aulis 


594 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Seifert  (zi'fert),  A.  (paint.).  C.  228-230, 
Electra 

Sellar,  W.  Y.,  182 5-1 890.  Augustan 
Poets,  446  n 

Shakespeare,  William,  1 564-1616.  Ex- 
tract from  Macbeth,  236 ;  C.  4-2^-/ 
passim,  references  to  works  in  general 

Shelley,  P.  B.,  1792-1822.  Quotations 
from  Hymn  of  Apollo,  28,  29;  Hymn 
of  Pan,  II  I,  112  ;  Arethusa,  1 18-120; 
Song  of  Proserpine,  160;  Lines  on 
the  Medusa  of  Leonardo  Da  Vinci, 
210;  C.  io~i^,  J 8  (2),  57,  log,  Pro- 
metheus Unbound  ;  jo.  Homer's 
Hymn  to  Apollo,  Adonais;  j6,  log. 
Homer's  Hymn  to  Mercury ;  42, 
JO-J2,  Ode  to  Liberty ;  44-46,  To 
Naples ;  4g,  To  Night ;  57,  To  the 
Moon ;  gj,  Arethusa ;  95,  Adonais  ; 
118,  Orpheus  ;  141,  Cyclops  of  Eurip- 
ides; i82-i8g,  Swellfoot  the  Tyrant 

Sichel    (ziG'el),   N.,    1844 (paint.). 

Reference  to,  C.  jo-i^ 

Sidney,  Sir  P.,  1 554-1 586.  C.  30,  1^6- 
162,  Astrophel  and  Stella 

Sill,  E.  R.,  1841-1887.  Quoted:  Venus 
of  Milo,  32-34;  Semele,  72,  73 

Sime  (sIm),  James.  Nibelungenlied  (in 
Encyc.  Brit.),  461  « 

Smart,  Chr.,  1722-1771.  C.  2gg,  transl. 
Horace 

Solimena  (so-le-ma'na),  Francesco, 
1657-1747  (paint.).  C.  121,  Rape  of 
Hippodamia  ;  ij6-i8i.  Battle  of 
Centaurs  and  Lapithae 

Southey,  R.,  1774-1843.  C. //^,  Thai- 
aba 

Spenser,  Edmund,  1552-1599.  Quoted: 
Verses  on  the  Graces,  36,  37  ;  from 
the  Muiopotmos,  83  ;  Faerie  Queene, 
454;  referred  to:  Epithalamion,  C. 
30,  32,  34,  38  (2),  42,  g8,  126-127, 
I4g-ij4;  Prothalamion,  ^,  j^,  j^,  50- 
J2,  132-133,  iyo-171 ;  Tears  of  the 
Muses,  38  (4) ;  Faerie  Queene,  30, 
32,  38  (8),  40,  42,  48,  4g,  50-S2,  34, 
76,  g6,  118,  123-124,  126-127,  /j-j, 
1^6-162,  170-171 


Stanyhurst,  R.,  d.  161 8.  C.  2gg,  transl. 
/Eneid,  1-4 

Stapylton,  Sir  R.,  d.  1669.  C.  104, 
transl.  Musaeus 

Stedman,  E.  C,  1833-1908.  Pan  in  Wall 
Street,  quoted,  183-185 ;  C.  22,  News 
from  Olympia  ;  231-244,  Penelope 

Stephens,   George,    1851 .    C.  300, 

Old  Runic  Monuments 

Stoddard,  R.  H.,  1825-1903.  C.  34, 
Arcadian  Hymn  to  Flora ;  114-117, 
The  Search  for  Persephone 

Story,  W.  W.,  1819-1895.  C.  32,  Ar- 
temis ;  59,  Europa ;  gi,  Clytie ;  233- 
237,  Tantalus 

Sturlason,  Snorri  (snor're  stoor'Ia-sun), 
1 1 79-1 24 1.  Connection  with  the 
Prose  Edda,  459  ;   C.  268-281 

Surrey,  Henry  Howard,  Earl  of,  1517- 
1547.    C.  106,  Death  of  Sir  T.  Wyatt 

Sveinsson  (svins'sun),'  Bp.  Bryniolf, 
1605-167 5.  His  connection  with  the 
Elder  Edda,  459 

Swanwick  (swon'ik),  Anna,  1813-1899. 
C.  ig6,  transl.  ^schylus 

Swift,  Jonathan,  1667-1745.  His  bur- 
lesque verses  on  Philemon  and 
Baucis,  79,  80 ;  C.  30,  Apollo  Out- 
witted; J4,  To  Janus;  113,  Fable  of 
Midas;  224,  A  City  Shower 

Swinburne,  A.  C,  1837-1909.  Quoted: 
His  Garden  of  Proserpine,  49,  50; 
from  Atalanta  in  Calydon,  2y]  etseq.; 
C.32,  Chorus  to  Artemis  ',34,  Chorus 
to  Aphrodite  (in  Atalanta  in  Caly- 
don);  Laus  Veneris;  40,  AtEleusis; 
42,  Prelude  to  Songs  before  Sunrise ; 
48,  To  Proserpine  ;  114-117,  Song  to 
Proserpine,  At  Eleusis;  i2g-i3o.  Pan 
and  Thalassius  ;  761?,  Atalanta  in  Caly- 
don ;  174,  Itylus;  176-181,  Phasdra, 
Erechtheus;  i82-i8g,  Tiresias 

Tabley,  Lord  de  (pseud.  Wm.  P.  Lan- 
caster), 1835 •  ^- 10-^ 5i  Pandora; 

_57,  Minos;  60,  Semele;  8g,  Daphne; 
i2g-i3o.  Ode  to  Pan ;  2ig-220,,  Philoc- 
tetes ;  228-230,  Orestes 


INDEX  OF  MODERN  AUTHORS  AND  ARTISTS 


595 


Talfourd  (torferd),  Sir  Thomas  Noon, 
1795-1854-    C.  174,  Ion 

Taylor,  Bayard,  1825-1878.  C.  ig-20, 
Prince  Deukalion  ;  22,  Masque  of  the 
Gods ;  I £6—162,  Hylas  ;  173,  Icarus 

Teignmouth  (tin'muth)  (English  artist). 
C.  64,  Cydippe   , 

Tennyson,  Alfred,  Lord,  1809-1892. 
Quotations  from  the  Hesperides,  40  ; 
Amphion,  76,  77  ;  Locksley  Hall, 
124;  his  Tithonus,  177-179;  Dream 
of  Fair  Women  (Helen),  277,  (Iphi- 
genia)  281;  CEnone,  278;  Lotos- 
eaters,  319,  320;  Ulysses,  344-345; 
To  Virgil,  346 ;  C.  24-2^,  jo.  The 
Talking  Oak  ;  j8  (2),  j^,  59,  Palace 
of  Art;  j8  [11),  The  Hesperides; 
40,  114-117,  Demeter  and  Per- 
sephone; 104,  Hero  to  Leander;  i4g- 
i£4,  The  Princess  ;  i82-i8g,  Tiresias ; 
795,  Dream  of  Fair  Women ;  221, 
CEnone,  and  Death  of  Qinone  ;  24^- 
2£4,  To  Virgil 

Tennyson,  Frederick,  1 807-1 898.  C. 
78,  Niobe ;  8g,  Daphne ;  101-102, 
Psyche  ;  loj,  Pygmalion  ;  107,  Klei's 
(in  Isles  of  Greece) ;  i2£,  Halcyone  ; 
163-167,  /Eson,  and  King  Athamas  ; 
176-1S1,  Ariadne 

Teschendorff    (tesh'en-dorf),   E.,    1823 

(paint.).    C.  176-181,  Ariadne; 

i82-i8g,  CEdipus,  Antigone,  Ismene; 
ig6,  Iphigenia ;  228-230,  Electra 

Thomas,    Edith    M.,  1854 .    C.  38 

(2),  Homesickness  of  Ganymede ; 
81,  Apollo  the  Shepherd ;  87,  Mar- 
syas  ;  i2£.  The  Kingfisher 

Thomson,  James,  1 700-1 748.  Extract 
from  the  Seasons,  195 ;  C.  3j,  £4, 
Seasons;  38  (4),  4g,  io§.  Castle  of 
Indolence ;  174,  Hymn  to  the  Sea- 
sons ;  ig6,  Agamemnon,  a  Tragedy 

Thorpe,  B.  C.  268-281,  transl.  of  Sae- 
mund's  Edda 

Thorwaldsen  (tor'wold-sen),  Albert  Ber- 
tel,  1770-1844  (sculpt).  C.  lo-ij, 
Minerva  and  Prometheus  (on  vase 
of  the  Perseus) ;  28,  Mars  and  Cupid ; 


2g,  Vulcan  forging  Arrows  for  Cupid  ; 
jj,  Venus  with  the  Apple ;  36,  Mer- 
cury; 38,  Mars  and  Cupid,  Gany- 
mede, Terpsichore ;  80,  Hygea  and 
^sculapius  ;  100,  Adonis  ;  207,  Hec- 
tor and  Andromache 

Thumann    (too'man),    Paul,    1834 

(paint).  C.38  (6),  The  Fates;  101- 
102,  Cupid  and  Psyche 

Tickell,  Thomas,  1 686-1 740.  C.30,  To 
Apollo  making  love,  transl.  of  Iliad, 
Bk.  I  (1715) 

Tiele  (te'le).  Professor  C.  P.  Cited  by 
Lang,  438 

Tintoretto  (ten-t6-ret't5),  Giacomo,  1518 
-1594  (paint.).  C.  27,  Minerva  de- 
feating Mars ;  2g,  Forge  of  Vulcan ; 
3j,  Cupid,  Venus,  and  Vulcan ;  36, 
Mercury  and  the  Graces ;  176-181, 
Ariadne  and  Bacchus ;  38  (4),  The 
Muses  and  Apollo  (Dresden) 

Tisio  (te'ze-6),  Benvenuto,  1481-1559 
(paint.).  C.  68,  Venus  showing  her 
wounded  hand  to  Mars  (Dresden) 

Titian  (tish'an)  (Tiziano  Vecellio),  1477- 
1576  (paint.).  C. 3£,  Venus;  38  (i), 
Cupid  and  Venus  (Dresden) ;  £4, 
Flora ;  joo,  Venus  and  Adonis  (copy, 
Dresden) ;  I4g-ij4,  Danae  and  the 
Shower  of  Gold ;  176-181,  Bacchus 
and  Ariadne 

Todhunter,  John,  1839 .    C.  83,  Al- 

cestis ;  ig£,  Helena  in  Troas 

Translators  :  English  Translations  from 
Ancient  and  Modern  Poems,  by 
various  authors  (Vol.  II  including 
Rowe's  Lucan's  Pharsalia ;  Fawkes' 
Theocritus,  Bion,  Moschus,  Argonau- 
tics  of  Apollonius  Rhodius,  Anacre- 
on,  Sappho;  Ovid's  Metamorphoses 
by  Dryden,  Addison,  Garth,  etc. ; 
Lewis'  Thebais  of  Statius ;  Cooke's 
Hesiod,  etc.).  3  vols.  London,  1810. 
For  other  translators,  see  C.  ig5-244, 
2g8-303 

Turchi(toc)r'ke),  Alessandro(rOrbetto), 
1 582-1 648  (paint).  C.  100,  Venus 
holding  the  body  of  Adonis  ( Dresden) 


i96 


THE  CLASSIC  MYTHS 


Turner,  Charles  Tennyson,  1808-1S79. 

C.  g6,  Orion 
Turner,  J.  M.  W.,   1775-1851    (paint.)- 

C.  j6,  Mercury  and  Argus  ;  12J-124, 

Procris  and  Cephalus ;  24^-2^4,  Dido 

building  Carthage 
Tylor,  E.  B.,  1 832-1909.    Works  cited 

or  referred  to,  440  n,  446,  449  « 

Van  Beers  (van  bars'),  J-,  1821-1888 
(paint).    6".  jo-j.?,  The  Siren 

Van  der  Werff  (van  der  verf),  Adrian, 
1659-1722  (paint.).  C.  795,  Judgment 
of  Paris  (Dresden) 

Van  Dyck  (van  dik'),  Sir  Anthony, 
1 599-1641.  C  j<?  ( I ),  Sleeping  Cupid ; 
i4g-i£4,  Jupiter  and  Danae  (Dres- 
den) 

Van  Haarlem  (van  har'lem),  Cornells, 
1562-1638  (paint).  C.  ic)o-jg4  (i), 
Wedding  of  Peleus  and  Thetis 
(Hague) 

Van  Mieris  (van  me'ris),  Willem,  1662- 
1747  (paint).  C.  12J-124,  Cephalus 
and  Procris  (Dresden) 

Vedder,  Elihu,  1836 (paint).  C.  97, 

Pleiades ;  24^-2^4,  Cumaean  Sibyl 

Velasquez  (va-las'kath),  D.  R.  de  Silva 
y,  1 599-1660  (paint).  C.  2g,  Forge 
of  Vulcan 

Vere  (ver),  Aubrey  Thomas  De,  1814- 
1902.  C  JO,  Lines  under  Delphi ;  48, 
Search  after  Proserpine  ;  59,  Rape  of 
Europa;  114-117,  on  the  myth  of 
Proserpine ;  i82-i8g,  Antigone 

Veronese  (va-ro-na'za)  (Paolo  Cagliari), 
1528-1588  (paint).  C.30,  St  Chris- 
tina, etc. ;  jj,  Venus,  Satyr,  Cupid ; 
59,  Rape  of  Europa 

Verrall,  Arthur  W.  C.  2g8,  transl.  M.s- 
chylus  and  Euripides 

Vien  (vyan),  J.  M.,  17 16-1809  (paint.). 
C.  I-/J,  Deedalus  and  Icarus 

Vigfusson  (vig'foo-sun),  G.,  and  F.  V. 
Powell.  Corpus  Poeticum  Boreale, 
458-460  «  ;   C.  268-281,  282,300 

Vilmar,  A.  F.  C.  Geschichte  d.  deutschen 
National- Litteratur,  461  «  ;   C.  joi 


Vinci,  Da  (dii  ven'che),  Leonardo,  1452- 

1519  (paint.).     C.  i4g-i^4,  Head  of 

Medusa 
Voltaire  (vol-ter'),   1694-1778.     C.  ibg, 

Merope 
Voss  (fos),  G.  J.,  1 577-1 649.    Advocate 

of  theological  interpretation,  440 

Wade,  Thomas,  1805-187  5.    C.  26,  The 

Nuptials  of  Juno 
Wagner  (vag'ner),  Richard,  1813-1883. 

The  Ring  of  the  Nibelung,  410-430; 

C.  283,  284-288 
W^aller,  Edmund,  1 605-1 687.    C.  so-S2, 

8g,  245-2^4,  Panegyric  on  Lord  Pro- 
tector 
Ward,  W.    C.  303,  History,  Literature, 

and  Mythology  of  the  Hindoos 
Warton,    Joseph,     1722-1800.      C.  40, 

First  of  April 
Watteau    (va-to'),   Antoine,    1684-1721 

(paint).    C.  igj,  Judgment  of  Paris 
Watts,  G.  F.,  1817-1904  (paint).    C.  8g, 

Daphne ;    g8,   Endymion ;    101-102, 

Psyche  ;  118,  Orpheus  and  Eurydice. 

Note  also  his  Ariadne,  and  The  Wife 

of  Pygmalion 
Way,  A.  S.     C.  2g8,  transl.  Euripides ; 

2gg,  transl.  Horace 
Weber  (va'ber),  A.  F.    C.303,  History 

of  Indian  Literature 
Webster,  Augusta,  1840 .  C.  10-15, 

transl.  iEschylus' Prometheus  Bound; 

163-167,  transl.  Euripides'  Medea 
Welcker  (vel'ker),  F.  G.     C.  59,  i2(h- 

12'/,  interpretations  of  myths 
West,  E.  W.    See  Haug 
Wheeler,  B.  I.    Dionysos  and  Immor- 
tality, 446  n 
White,  Henry  Kirke,  1785-1806.    C.32, 

Ode   to    Contemplation ;    ^9,   Than- 

atos 
Whitelaw,  R.     C.  156-162,  2g8,  transl. 

Sophocles 
Wickham,  E.  C.    C.  2gg,  transl.  Horace 
Wiertz  (verts),  A.  J.,  1806-1865  (paint.). 

C.  2g,  Forge  of  Vulcan ;    799,  Fight 

for  the  Body  of  Achilles 


INDEX  OF  MODERN  AUTHORS  AND  ARTIS  TS       597 


Wilde,    Oscar,    1S56-1900.     €.38(1), 

The  Garden  of  Eros ;  77^,  The  Bur- 
den of  Itys 
Wilkinson,  Sir  Gardner,  1797- 187  5.    C. 

128,  on  the  statue  of  Memnon 
Wilkinson,  W.  C.  C.  2g8,  College  Greek 

Course,  ani  College  Latin   Course, 

in  English 
Williams,    Sir  M.   Monier,    1819-1899. 

C.  joj,  transl.  Nalopakhyanam 
Williams,  T.  C.     C.  sgg,  transl.  .Eneid 
Wilson,  H.  H.,  1786-1860.  C.joj,  transl. 

Rig-Veda-Sanhita ;     Theatre    of   the 

Hindus 
Wodhull,  Michael,  1 740-181 6.    C.  /6j- 

i6y,  228-2J0,  2g8,  trans'.  Euripides 
Woodberry,  George  E.    Extracts  from 

Proserpine,  163,  164 
Woolner,  Thomas,   1825-1892.     C.  2j, 


Tiresias  (Pallas  Athene);  J4,  Pyg- 
malion (Cytherea);  /ojr,  Pygmalion; 
i82-i8g.  The  Sphinx 

Wordsworth,  W.,  1770-1850.  Quoted: 
Sonnet,  "  The  World  is  too  much 
with  us,"  58 ;  Laodamia,  282,  283 ; 
Excursion,  443,  444  ;  C.j2,  To  Lyco- 
ris ;  118,  i2g-ijo,  Power  of  Music ; 
2ig-220,  Philoctetes 

Wyatt,  Sir  Thomas,  1503-1542.  C.  J4, 
The  Lover  prayeth,  etc.;  24^-2^4, 
Song  of  lopas 

Young,  Edward,  1683-1765.  C.  jc?  (4), 
Ocean  ;  J4,  g8,  1^5,  243-234,  Night 
Thoughts 

Zick  (tsTk),  A.  (paint).  C.  101-102, 
Psyche 


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